It's Time to Sell Podcast: Strategies for 21st Century Selling

Cameron Herold is a top business consultant, best-selling author, and speaker. Named by Forbes Magazine as “the CEO Whisperer”, Cameron has touched thousands of businesses directly and indirectly through his work. By age 35, he had built two $100 million companies, and by 42, he had grown 1-800-GOT-JUNK? from $2 million, to $106 million in revenue in just six years.

Andy Paul has been in B2B sales for over 40 years. He’s sold everything from computers to SMBs, to complex communications systems to the world’s largest enterprises. He’s been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in new business, and now he teaches ambitious salespeople, sales teams, and companies how to grow their revenue.

Shawn Finder is the CEO of AutoKlose, a new revolutionary sales automation platform that is used by 3000+ sales professionals around the world. He is also the author of The B2B Sales Handbook and is among the Top 25 Sales Engagement Influencer.

Nicky Billou is the #1 International Best-Selling Author of Finish Line Thinking: How To Think & Win Like A Champion and author of the new book The Thought Leader’s Journey. He is also an accountability coach, consultant, speaker, and the host of The Thought Leader Revolution Podcast.

Liston Witherill is a sales trainer and consultant who helps client services professionals sell more services to big companies. Liston and his company, Serve Don’t Sell, provide remote and onsite training to teams who want to serve their clients more effectively while selling more, and doing it ethically.

Bill Bice started his first company at age 18, growing ProLaw Software into the largest law firm automation system for small and mid-size law firms. Today, Bill is the CEO of boomtime, and is passionate about helping small businesses grow.  His goal is to enable smaller businesses to more effectively compete with their larger competitors.

Ethan Beaute initially started as a writer, producer and editor, creating campaigns for local television stations for about twelve years. Now, he is the Chief Evangelist of BombBomb, a company that helps you enjoy clearer communication, human connection, and higher conversion with simple, personal videos.

Frank Cottle is the Founder and CEO of the Alliance Group of Companies, and an experienced speaker, strategist, entrepreneur, advisor, business leader and investor. His primary areas of expertise include integrating flexible workspace models to assist with corporate real estate repositioning, investment banking, finance, workplace technology, and business leadership.

Wes Schaeffer is The Sales Whisperer®, an entrepreneur, sales trainer, and speaker who believes marketing is just selling in print. He is the author of 2.5 books on sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship and has helped 5,400 of the world’s top speakers, authors, coaches, and sales professionals achieve nearly miraculous growth by implementing his repeatable, transferable, and proven processes.

Joe Trodden is a mindset expert who has worked with over 300 entrepreneurs, from idea stage through to investment raises, working with them to develop their mindset and create their unique path to success.

In 2013, Alex McClafferty co-founded WP Curve, when it was doing less than $500 per month in revenue. By 2015, Alex and his team had grown the business to a 7-figure run rate. In 2016, Alex ran the sell-side of their acquisition to GoDaddy. Finally, Alex left GoDaddy to pursue his passion as a CEO Coach in 2018.

Sam Harris is a scientist, entrepreneur and nomad. He is curious about everything and always open to experimenting, with hobbies ranging from breakdance to investing, biohacking to writing. There is an endless list of interesting things to investigate.

Steven Norman is a seasoned B2B sales leader and general manager, with over twenty-five years’ experience in consumer, small business and enterprise sales. Throughout his career, he has worked for leading technology brands including Dell, NEC and Targus and has been responsible for over US$4 billion in sales. He is the founder of Growth Acumen, which helps companies implement world-class sales practices and leadership development.

Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. He helps improve organizations, leaders, teams, and employees by improving their mindsets and mindfulness.

Brian W. Robinson has worked in sales and marketing with some of the best-known companies in the world, including Coca-Cola USA and Johnson & Johnson. Upon leaving his corporate career, he helped launch a successful start-up where he was the first person in the history of the industry to sell more than one million dollars in business in twelve months—entirely by phone. His more than two decades’ worth of in-the-trenches, battle-tested, face-to-face and phone-presentation knowledge can benefit virtually anyone, from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurial ventures.

Harry Maziar is the consummate sales professional. He was the CEO of a sales organization with more than 2,000 representatives. He is the first Executive in Residence at Kennesaw State University and was instrumental in developing their Center for Professional Selling.

Jason Bay is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Blissful Prospecting. He's worked with hundreds of sales reps and personally closed millions of dollars in revenue during his career. At Blissful Prospecting, he's in charge of growing company revenue through marketing and sales efforts. In this episode, we talk about: how Blissful Prospecting was born how to make prospecting ‘fun’ prospecting formulas that work practical tips on how to use videos for prospecting building cadence, and a lot more.   Check out the full episode!   Prospecting Formulas That Work You definitely need to be targeted and purposeful with what you’re doing. It starts with your ideal client profile - you need to know exactly who you’re reaching out to and it needs to be segmented. Prospects want specialists, so the big thing that you need to do is to create that segmentation. The ideal client profile, it can’t just be “we work with SaaS companies”; it has to be “we help B2B SaaS companies, under 1000 employees, that use this type of…” - that’s how specific it needs to be. That segmentation is going to allow you to really present a case that’s very specific for the person you’re reaching out to, without you having to do a lot of personalization.   Not All Prospects Are Created Equal We send a couple of emails to someone, and we only send personalized videos to people that actually open the emails. And this is a good prospecting hack: you really need to prioritize your prospects. Don’t treat everyone equally. Don’t spend a lot of extra time calling or recording a video for someone if they're not even opening half the emails that you’re sending.   How to Use Video for Prospecting (Practical Tips) When recording a video, make sure to look into the camera so the person on the other end feels like you’re talking to them. Invest in a good webcam. Keep it under 60 seconds. Ideal length is 30 seconds. Follow this format: Who you are, why you’re reaching out, and why you should talk (call to action). Create an eye-catching video thumbnail. Show your personality and don’t be too serious.     Mentions Blissful Prospecting Jason Bay  (LinkedIn) Apollo.io Selling Above and Below the Line: Convince the C-Suite. Win Over Management. Secure the Sale by William Miller Free Guide from Blissful Prospecting

Michael Roderick is a founder, speaker, and connector with an insatiable level of curiosity about the world. He works with clients to curate, extend, and leverage their existing networks for the purpose of getting higher paid engagements, speaking opportunities, and becoming thought leaders in their industry.

Michael Zipursky is the CEO of Consulting Success. He's advised organizations like Financial Times, Dow Jones, RBC, Omron, Sumitomo and helped Panasonic launch new products into global markets, but more importantly, he's helped over 300 consultants from around the world in over 50 industries add six and seven figures to their annual revenues. He is one of the world's top authorities on growing a consulting business.

Karen McGregor is a bestselling author, international speaker, coach, trainer and the founder/ CEO of the Speaker Success Formula. Her company helps entrepreneurs create, structure and deliver compelling presentations to monetize their expertise and launch successful speaking businesses. Using her Speaker Success Formula, Karen attracts a wide range of clients from Olympic athletes, health experts, elite artists, and musicians to coaches, financial advisors, real estate experts, bestselling and aspiring authors.

Adam Lean is the Founder of The CFO Project, a business dedicated to helping small business owners have a financially healthy business by providing them their very own Chief Financial Officer. That way, they can focus more on what they do best while knowing that they are on the right track financially.

Steve Benson is the CEO and Founder of Badger Maps, the number one app for route planning and scheduling to help outside sales reps save up to 10 hours every week in busy work. Prior to Badger Maps, Steve worked in sales at IBM and HP, and also worked as Regional Sales Manager at Google.

Judy Weintraub is the Founder and President of SkillBites, a company she started to help entrepreneurs get known for their expertise and help their sales performance by becoming published authors.

Kathryn Binkley is a business strategist and coach who help women entrepreneurs to build wildly successful online businesses. Before becoming a coach, Kathryn graduated with a degree in BA Psychology and started working for a marketing agency for nearly a decade. As a market expert, she helped businesses figure out where to best invest their marketing dollars, and now, she helps women entrepreneurs grow in the business that they love.

Rivers Corbett is a serial entrepreneur, TedX speaker, entrepreneur in residence in New Brunswick, video author of 13 Fears of Entrepreneurs, host of the Startup Canada Podcast, and co-founder of GoForth Garage for entrepreneurs. Rivers help entrepreneurs succeed by helping them understand and implement the right formula for building an epic business.

Jason Linett is an expert at helping organizations and the people within them create powerful change and sharpen their strategies. As a speaker, author, and hypnotist, Jason has put in more than fifteen years of professional study and on-the-job experience tracking how top performers in many industries achieve astounding results.

Madeleine Lambert is the co-founder of Content Refined, a fast growing content marketing company that provides cutting-edge online content for affiliate marketers, e-commerce businesses and SaaS companies. If you want to learn more about how you can use content to distinguish yourself online, check out the full episode!

Matt Watson is the founder of Stackify and FullScale.io. He is a software engineer and entrepreneur who likes solving problems with technology. Before Stackify, he founded VinSolutions and then sold it to AutoTrader.com in May 2011 for $150 MM. There’s a lot of things to learn about content marketing and sales strategies in this episode, so go check it out!

Based in Northern California, Krista Mashore sold 69 homes in her first year and has personally sold well over 100 homes every year since. On track to sell 200 homes this year, Krista also coaches and trains brokers and agents throughout the U.S. on cutting edge real estate techniques and technologies you can't learn from any other trainer or coach out there. Krista has recently been recognized in "Top Agent Magazine" as one of the leading agents in California, as well as by the Wall Street Journal in the Top 1% of Realtors Nationwide.

Jon Gillham is the CEO and Founder of Adbank, a powerful online ad platform built on Ethereum to remove costly middlemen & dramatically reduce the $50 billion problem of ad fraud using advanced AI technology. By using the Adbank platform, publishers can get paid more for their content while charging advertisers less and creating a transparent ecosystem that benefits all key stakeholders in the industry. Existing ad platforms will be able to access cutting edge anti-fraud AI tools through Adbank’s API and powered with ADB tokens.

Today is going to be a solo episode. Now, I have been working with a client and we’ve been trying to get in the door of some new clients. I spent the last couple of weeks doing a little bit of research and practical application. We are wanting to get in the door of new prospects and I thought of recording a short episode to share with you these ideas, ideas we have been deploying based on our research and practical application.

Larry Levine is the international best-selling author of Selling From the Heart and the co-host of the Selling From the Heart Podcast. With 30 years of in-the-field sales experience within the B2B technology space, he knows what it takes to be a successful sales professional. Now Larry coaches B2B sales professionals to do what he did. Since 2015 Larry has coached both quota-busting tenured reps and green millennials just beginning their careers. Both appreciate the practical nature of his coaching.

Zach Messler is a product marketing guy at heart. For twenty years, he has been into product marketing, sales and product messaging for B2B tech. He left his corporate career over a year ago to pursue his passion for effective communication towards efficient marketing. Now, he helps entrepreneurs with their messaging, to know what to say and how to say it so that they make a bigger impact on the world, and a bigger impact on their wallets.

Our episode for today is going to be short and sweet. A lot of things have been going on in the past few weeks and I thought I’d share it with all of you. Rewinding the tape: what I did before. Going broad in your business. Last November, I made the big leap of faith and left my safe secure job working with one of the larger companies in the world – a multinational advisory firm. Prior to that I had launched my book, launched my podcast, grew a little bit of a following by delivering value and just putting myself out there in a very genuine and authentic way. I shared stories, tips and tactics that are pretty well-focused on sales, and growing business through human-to-human sales techniques. At a certain point last year, I felt an ache in my stomach and I really wanted to jump out and do something on a full-time basis. So I took the leap of faith and in late November I finished my last day in KPMG and went out on my own. Where I Am Today: Consulting and Speaking Engagements I have a good group of customers and clients that I work with on a monthly basis, growing revenues for their businesses. Those clients range in size, you know, from $2-million dollars in annual revenue and up to much a larger $50-million dollars in annual revenue. For some, I just run a weekly sales meeting where I meet with all the people who are doing sales within the company. I run an accountability meeting where we grow the pipeline and we work things through the pipeline on a weekly basis. I’m actually attending meetings in some cases with certain clients, where I’m observing, chiming in, coaching after the meetings with prospective clients, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m getting some great results for my clients and obviously getting some great results for me and my business – Chris Spurvey Consulting Incorporated. So that’s that, that’s what I’ve been up to in terms of my consulting business. When it comes to speaking, it’s been very organic. I get people and organizations reaching out to me on occasion, and a couple of times a month I give talks here in my home province in Newfoundland, along with a few people throughout the rest of Canada. Dockridge Digital and the Bottom Line Top Line Podcast I have two other initiatives I want to share with you. I’ve co-founded another company called Dockridge Digital with my two pals – David Chesney and Dan Shay. These two, fine gentlemen approached me about a month ago, and I’ve now become a part-owner of the company. I’ve also began collaborating with two very special friends of mine – Carol Bartlett and Jol Hunter. To make the long story short, the three of us decided to collaborate on a new podcast, the Bottom Line Top Line podcast. We plan to launch a weekly show. The first 5 episodes are centered around Jol and his work. Jol is a very special human being. He formulated some key learnings from having visited the owners of 500 businesses, and in the first 5 episodes we deep dive into his five learnings in terms of how businesses can scale and grow and reach their full potential. I certainly welcome you to listen to that podcast, and subscribe to receive updates at bottomlinetopline.com. I think you’ll hear some very unique perspectives and hopefully some great things for you to take away and grow your business.   Mentions Dockridge Digital Bottom Line Top Line Podcast

A good business flourishes on a healthy mindset that you will reap what you sow.   Today’s guest is Ellen Rogin, CPA, CFP, a renowned speaker, money expert, NY Times’ Best- selling author and Abundance Activist. Ellen combines her financial expertise and creativity in motivating people to shift their viewpoints that businesses grow when it starts to create generous opportunities to make a greater positive impact. Her books had helped a lot of business owners develop strong “financial belief management skills” to be a rock star not only in growing their business, but also giving back to the community and inspire others. In this episode, we talk about The importance of generosity as a business core the science and effects of giving The ways she incorporated generosity in personal and business matters If you’re a business owner who’s ready to grow and make a positive impact, I recommend you tune in.   Generosity As a Core Value People were hanging on so tightly to what they had, so afraid they weren’t going to be okay. At the same time that people in their lives and charities needed their money more than ever. Now if you think your hands as being clenched, how can you possibly receive?   On the other hand, if you are always giving, giving and giving, some people have a money belief that it’s not okay to have money. It’s not spiritual or something not okay with people with money. And you’re always giving in your palms or always open doesn’t work either. Giving and receiving are both important. If you thought of a coin, they are other sides of the coin. You can’t have a giver without a receiver.   I built my financial advisory practice with that in mind. When I first started, I didn’t call it “generosity is the new currency in business.” But I was lucky to be taught very early in my career about networking and told me that what you sow, you reap. That has always been my strategy for building businesses. If I want more business, I have to be out there giving more business to other people.   When you are out there giving, with no expectation of something in return, it always falls back to you just not necessarily from the same person whom you gave to. And I believe it works that way with money too. The more generous you are, the more that flows in to you when you’re loosening that grip on your finances, things flow back.   The Science Behind Giving Generosity is actually the physical manifestation of your gratitude.  You don’t have to have a lot of money to be generous. Take a breath a focus on what is working well in your life. People have a complicated relationship with money, whether they have a lot of money or not. The things that made people more successful were a lot more about how they thought and felt about their money. If people could have a healthy money mindset and were more content about money, the whole idea of building their prosperity works so much more effectively. One thing is they’ve found something called subjective wealth. When you give financially, your brain interprets that as “Oh, if I was able to give, I must be rich!” Giving 500 dollars gives you the same emotional buzz as getting a 10,000 dollar raise. Volunteering has more positive impact on your health than people taking an aspirin every day for their heart. Kids are better generous as more successful as adults. They have lower depression rates. It’s not just because it feels good but there’s a lot of science that shows that this actually does help us. In terms of a business building strategy when you can focus on adding value, really being of service to other people in the work that you do, not only does it feel good and I think really boost your motivation, I also think it grows your business. My business grew 39% in a down market in a recession. I credit a lot of that to shifting my viewpoint. Incorporating Generosity At this point, my goal is to build significant business so that I am walking my talk but the ultimate mission is to make the world a more generous place. Setup a systematic savings plan and a systematic giving plan for yourself. Whatever percentage makes sense for you and to wherever you want to give it. So it could be a family member, a faith-based thing, a charity that is really important to you. Our family has been able to take volunteer vacations all over the world because we have allocated money and we have taken it out of our giving account. People want to do good business with good people. So when you think about your business how are you out there serving? Sometimes people are so quiet about that, and it’s not necessarily needed. You could be inspiring people. It’s a way to have conversations with people. If you give gifts to your clients, you may want to consider making them charitable gifts. Be authentic and consistent. You don’t want you out there just giving to the community and being a jerk to the people that work for you. There is so many science that the world is ready for this. There is so many social enterprises starting now and people want to do business with good people so whether you are doing it in your own personal way, or you’re doing it through your business, having a positive impact on the world is really what is going to bring you business success but also personal happiness and that’s what most of it is really about. How can you make a contribution?     Mentions Connect with Ellen on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Website: https://www.ellenrogin.com/ Reach out via email: Ellen@Ellenrogin.com

It’s not just about telling a great story – it’s about telling the right story. Today’s guest is Dom Cappuccilli, CEO and Founder of The Clean Sell. Dom combines the power of a trained storyteller with the real-world experience of an elite salesperson. In fact, he became an elite salesperson because he was a trained storyteller. His consulting firm has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to not only tell a better sales story, but also built many of their sales efforts from the ground up. FULL BIO: https://www.thecleansell.com/about-us/ In this episode, we talk about his journey from storytelling to sales the myth of the superhero salesperson the story you should be telling, and the right time to scale up. If you’re a business owner who’s ready to scale your business, I recommend you tune in. Scaling Somebody starts a company because they see a problem in the market that they have a unique ability to solve and they understand the industry. Usually they are technical or a subject matter expert in that. That is their craft, that is their industry, that’s what they have. That craft is not sales. But when your friend gets to fifteen people and all of a sudden – I don’t know if he has funding or what happened – and he wants to scale, he now is in a really tough predicament. Because that scaling and that sales function and that sales piece falls on his shoulders/her shoulders. So what do you do? The Myth of the Superhero Salesperson Generally, what I see happen are one of three things. The first one is inhouse outsourcing. They hire a VP of sales who has this relevant experience, they have this big resume that they worked in the industry and they promise this rolodex of people they may reach out to. It sounds like this great dream and they have this fantasy of the founder who gets to meet with their VP of sales and just see their numbers go up and they don’t have to anything except this weekly meeting where they get a report on the good news. “That is a fallacy, it’s like the myth of the superhero sales person that’s how a colleague of mine calls it. This is a big trouble spot for a lot of companies. The second thing that they do is they hire too young, hungry people or one young hungry person and they say, “Go do this!” The problem there is those people don’t have the expertise to build a sales process on their own, so they will struggle unless you get a really good person with great potential and can really do it. But those are executors generally, they’re kind of junior level sales talent at that point. They haven’t been through enough to really build that from the ground up, and they’re going to struggle without structure, and you’re not able to give them structure. “The third one is they do it themselves and I would recommend doing it yourself. If it’s between that and the other two choices and do it yourself successfully, twenty times before you hire someone else. You need to be, in these early days, be out there talking to customers, you need to understand the product, what’s going on, what their needs are and really build that. The Story to Tell We’ve talked about storytelling in the past and how you can leverage your story that so people can connect with you and your business. But Dom has a different take on storytelling. Let’s start with the story they shouldn’t be telling. “If I could summarize what I do pretty clearly it’s that I teach companies to tell their client’s story, and the story of the problem they solve – not their own story. Any story is interesting if you care about it, and like honestly, nobody gives a shit about my story unless it relates to a problem that they have and it’s something that helps them within their lives then my story matters. So what I teach my clients is the first thing that you have to do even before you tell the story is make sure you’re telling the right one. Tell the story of the problem that you’re going to solve for this client that goes beyond the initial sales conversation – that goes to your marketing, your content marketing. Be the person to talking about that problem so people will come to you when they need to solve it. Mentions Connect with Dom on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Website: https://www.thecleansell.com Reach out via email: dom@thecleansell.com The Art of Acting by Stella Adler  

Trustworthiness is a skill that can be learned. There are 8 principles at the heart of a customer’s decision to trust a company. Saying that, I will give you a caveat, for business leaders especially, customers don’t buy from companies they buy from people, so that is really important. -Natalie Doyle Oldield The research I have done and validated over 7 years of testing through the scientific process in academia shows that there are 8 principles and when you learn these 8 principles and learn how to apply them in your business you will build trust, manage, or protect the trust you have with your customers. Today's guest is Natalie Doyle Oldfield. She is a trust authority, consultant and keynote speaker who works with companies to grow their business and build customer loyalty and trust. A former Chief Marketing Officer, she is the author of THE POWER OF TRUST: How Top Companies Build, Manage and Protect It, and creator of The Client Trust Index ™ and the online Becoming a Trusted Advisor program. Natalie was named a 2018 and 2017 Top Thought Leader in Trust by Trust Across America. Natalie talks about the power of trust and the 8 underlying principles at the heart of a customer's decision to trust a company. This is definitely something that you have to tune in to.   Can we build the capability to be trustworthy?  Trustworthiness is a skill that can be learned. In my research, what we found is that there are 8 principles at the heart of a customer’s decision to trust a company. Saying that, I will give you a caveat, for business leaders especially, customers don’t buy from companies they buy from people, so that is really important. Specifically from people who are informed, empowered, can solve customer problems and issues, and what I would suggest they are trusted advisers. You can learn to build trust. Some people are more natural than others. The research I have done and validated over 7 years of testing through the scientific process in academia shows that there are 8 principles and when you learn these 8 principles and learn how to apply them in your business you will build trust, manage, or protect the trust you have with your customers. The 8 Principles These 8 principles are part of a model to build trust. On my paper, I am drawing a circle, in the middle of that circle, I am writing on my notepad the Customer Centered Trust Circle. Because for me, it all has to start with the customer. When an organization starts with the culture of trust that’s focused on the customer, the organization has clearly articulated values, purpose, vision and mission. And I really believe that at the center of any organization’s focus and purpose should be a customer strategy. Every organization is created to serve a customer. On another ring I will draw on that circle, is that the organization has the capabilities and competencies so they can do what they promised to do. The next ring is interactions, interactions with people. Trust, as you know, is at the basic quality and the heart of every human interaction. We know when it goes off or when it is damaged. Basically this ring is about how we communicate, how we behave and how we serve. The 8 principles of trust and that is for customers inside and outside the organization: #1 – Listen carefully with empathy and compassion. Question and involve the customer and stakeholder in the dialogue. Communication is the gateway to trust. Listening is the gateway to communication. Taking the time to listen to the customers and stakeholders without bias and without filter and demonstrating empathy and compassion and involving them in conversations that affect them is foundational to building and sustaining to trust. #2 – Communicate using clear, concrete, conversational language Clarity inspires trust and we feel confident when we understand what’s happening around us; when we don’t understand we tend to glaze over and when we glaze over we don’t understand oftentimes that means we don’t believe so that leads to distrust. Confidence, clarity, simplicity inspire trust. I suggest to my clients that they communicate in simple, everyday language that customers and stakeholders understand. Trusted advisers are often very good at describing issues in the customer’s terms and understanding the customer’s language. #3 – Be honest and transparent. Honesty is always the best policy. This one is proactively sharing and communicating as much relevant information that you can with your customers. One simple phrase that encourages trust is the simple but difficult admission of “I don’t know.” Trusted advisers acknowledge they don’t know every answer but when you do this that encourages confidence and humility which shows self-awareness so that’s one thing that builds trust. Nothing builds trust like the truth. #4 – Being consistent, predictable and reliable. What’s significant about this principle as it relates to selling is that when we combine when we combine consistency, predictable and reliable behavior, communication and how we serve it reduces risk and vulnerability. It’s a lot easier to buy from a person or a company or to support where we are not at risk. Customers don’t want to be at risk, they don’t want to be vulnerable. It’s extremely important for trusted advisers and for people who want to become a trusted adviser to really focus on being consistent in all their messages predictable and reliable. One way you could do this is to follow-up. The one thing we want to do with building trust is it goes hand in hand with showing someone respect. #5 – Act in the best interest of customers and stakeholders and the public. This is where we get to the heart of intentions and motives. Your customer must believe that you are putting their interests first. Trust only succeeds when a customer’s expectation is met and motives are clear. We know as a customer when a company is doing the right thing for us when they are acting in our best interests. As an example, they might recommend another company’s product or services if they don’t think that they have the right solution for you. #6 – Doing the right thing When you make a mistake, fix it. Nothing’s gonna clearly project your values, integrity and ethics than doing the right thing. This is one thing that you should never compromise even if it cost you a sale or business for a short term. When your organization makes a mistake, just communicate how you will fix it and do so in a timely manner. Fix it in a way that if it happened to you, you’d want it to be fixed and something you could be proud of. #7 – Deliver on your promise. This is about walking the talk. Demonstrating integrity by delivering on what you say you’re going to do, keeping your commitments, behaving and having the capabilities you say you have, measuring continually to stay up to date with your skills, and honoring your word. Every customer wants what we promise to deliver. #8 – Commit to the long term. Time is a major factor to this. This is so important because trust is assessed and reassessed continually over time through our experience with an organization or a person. We all want to deal with people who are committed to us for the long-term. It’s about setting goals, innovative, being knowledgeable, achieving and measuring results, a continual focus on building and strengthening and protecting relationships with customers. Mentions Connect with Natalie on LinkedIn The Power of Trust: How Top Companies Build, Manage and Protect It by Natalie Doyle Oldfield Building Trust with Customers: A Workbook Eight Guiding Principles by Natalie Doyle Oldfield Website: https://successthroughtrust.com/ 

Cultural competency opens a lot of doors. “Most people don’t have the insight to step into somebody else’s frame of reference to look through their eyes, which means companies and entrepreneurs who want to build a successful business will really have to learn the different skills cultural competencies that can open the doors for them.” - Dr. Richard Nongard Relationships are built on something shared between two people – maybe a hobby, a favorite sports team, the school they graduated from, or a vision. And when it comes to sales, relationship-building is so much easier than prospecting. Today’s guest is Dr. Richard Nongard. Richard is an expert in business leadership and business psychology. He started out in car sales in the early 1980's and parlayed his sales experience into leadership experience by moving on as an entrepreneur and executive in both the healthcare and educational sectors. He is a licensed psychotherapist who views his training in counseling as a degree in "problem-solving". Richard is a serial entrepreneur and has owned several restaurants and multi-million dollar e-commerce platforms. He shares a pathway of engaging community, changing culture and building identity as the formula for leadership and business results. FULL BIO: https://richardnongard.com/dr-richard-nongard/ In this episode, we talk about diversification, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship cross-cultural awareness cultural competence, goal-setting vs intention, and morning rituals. Richard also gives some great real-life examples and tips on how to leverage cultural competence in your sales conversations, and some rapport-building skills related to cross-cultural awareness. This is a good one, so make sure to give it a listen. Diversification “Multiple streams of income is absolutely important for everybody. I’ve learned that the hard way. September 11th, 2001 was devastating to my business, and the reason why is because largely, at that point, I was on-site, providing services, and suddenly I had travel restrictions, I had customers who were unable to travel. I had a business model where I went and spoke and I got paid and I got paid well, but I never got paid after the fact. Everything was live and everything was one-shot, and by 2001 I had learned that I really needed to develop the online presence and build that business so that I could create residual income alternative revenue streams. Today, our company actually provides tax services and infrastructure for other mental health and healthcare organizations. Cross-Cultural Awareness I’ve always been interested in cultural awareness. I realized early on that it was going to be important in my ability to create a sustaining business, to be able to create rapport with people whose experiences were different than mine. “I really want to be able to sell to everybody. Put it in a political context in America, I want both Republicans and Democrats to spend money with me. “Navigating a minefield of different beliefs while being able to be true to your own core values is a really important cross-cultural challenge. People think of cross-cultural challenges as “this racial group is different than this racial group” or “this ethnic group is different than this ethnic group,” or “this language group is different than this language group.” But cross-cultural awareness deals with inter-generational differences. It deals with financial differences. It simply deals with the different experiences that different people have, and ultimately, everybody has differences. By using the tools and the resources that might come from cross-cultural leadership or cross-cultural engagement, and applying them to entrepreneurship and sales, specifically, produces what I’ve identified as six very specific outcomes, and those outcomes are incredibly positive. 3 of 6 Outcomes “Cultural competence creates rapport. Every salesperson early on in their sales training learns about the value of rapport. Rapport is being able to share a space with another person with both mutual respect, but an exchange of ideas. That moves us from small talk into what might be called “search talk.” By engaging in search talk through rapport, I can do a better job at selling because I’m meeting my client’s very specific needs. I was in grad school when I was actually selling Honda’s, so I was practicing being a therapist while I was selling cars and I fashioned myself as the car counselor. When I truly helped my customers meet their needs with their automotive purchase, then I ended up actually having some pretty big commission checks. “Cultural competence, it’s far more efficient when I can understand my customer’s vantage point and viewpoint. When I can share a space with them, efficiency becomes part of the sales process. And efficiency is important because I like to move on to other sales processes, and of course, even a little bit of cultural competence can open potentially new markets. Those are three out of those six things that I think are really important. Mentions Connect with Richard on LinkedIn Viral Leadership: Seize the Power of Now to Create Lasting Transformation in Business by Richard Nongard Transformational Leadership: How To Lead From Your Strengths And Maximize Your Impact by Richard Nongard Website: http://viralleadership.com

The new gets old, and the old is new again. That’s just how the world works. Gone are the days of the door-to-door salesman. We don’t need to leave our offices anymore to get a potential customer into a sales conversation. We now have a myriad of communication tools at our disposal – email, social media, text...even chatbots. But you know what’s really effective? Face-to-face conversations. After exploring the world of email marketing and online selling, I found that nothing works as well as calling up a client for coffee, or treating them to dinner. Today’s guest is Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-founder at Cirrus Insight, a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for sales people. It's an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. 250,000 people use Cirrus Insight and its sister products Attach.io and Assistant.to to work faster and smarter from the inbox and calendar. In just six years, Brandon has helped Cirrus Insight grow to to $12m in annual revenue, 58 employees, and #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies. In this episode, we talk about how they started their company, what’s working (and not working) in sales today, sales in complex environments when to form a sales team, and the different paths to closing the deal. If you’re looking for ways to improve on your selling skills, I recommend you tune in.   Sales Enablement Seven years ago, I don’t think the category that we’re in existed. No one was going around at conferences talking about sales enablement. That was the phrase that people were using. There was this new category that’s emerged, sales enablement seems to be the dominant phrase; sometimes people would often call it sales acceleration, sales operation – there’s a lot of titles there. “There’s a lot of people now working in that field to essentially equip the producers, the salespeople, with the tools they need to be successful, which I think is a recognition by all these organizations and corporations that sales is hard. Otherwise, you just hire a bunch of people and say, “Just go sell the thing. Just go be a salesperson.” But instead, now there’s this industry of enablement and operations professionals whose job is to go out and source the right tools, the right training, the right process, to make sure you’re getting out of the way, but also facilitating what the salespeople are trying to accomplish out there. Email Lists and Voicemails Back when we started, the things that were working – it’s whoever built the biggest mailing list wins. If you had more emails, then you’re early in the automated marketing game, so you’re just getting in front of people and your competitors’ work. “Does it still work to have a great opt in email list? Absolutely, it’s still extremely valuable. But the volume that all of us are seeing in the inbox, the volume of voicemails that we’re getting – so much higher now. I didn’t get a lot of voicemails everyday back when we started; now, it’s like all the time. Thankfully it’s a digital voicemail, right, so you don’t actually listen to them. You just scan it. But those are the challenges for the salespeople. People don’t pick up their phone because they have caller ID. They don’t listen to voicemail because they have digital voicemails – they just delete it. And there’s such a high volume of email that even if it’s a great email, they may or may not actually see it. Thankfully email still works really well. The Path to Closing the Deal We’re finding LinkedIn is a good channel. Certainly not a cure-all, it’s not like, “Oh I went on LinkedIn and all of a sudden I started killing it.” But it’s a good way to break through for certain people, the folks that are on there a lot. “It’s a good way to get around or supplement the inbox with another message on another platform. But to your earlier point, it’s not door-to-door anymore. It’s one of those “What’s old is new” again. A lot of the stuff that seems to be working is in-person – getting out to events, shaking hands, taking people to dinner, getting to know about them, their goals, their career, their organization, their business, and then seeing how do we fit as a product or a service provider. Then the key is in that last 30 seconds of the two-hour dinner. You say, “Hey, this has been great. We’ve all learned a lot.” But too often there’s a parting of ways and there’s like, “Now how do we followup?” You just go back to the old, “Well, I’ll just send a bunch of followup emails.” Probably not. Yes, you want to email them, but I think it’s that last 30 seconds of, “Hey this has been great. Who else do we need to talk with?” Loop them those folks you mentioned earlier, great, let’s all get on the same channel. “Let’s find out quickly if this is gonna work, because if it’s not we’ll leave you alone. Here’s my cellphone number, can I get yours? That way we can text.” Text is the best. If you can get someone’s cellphone number, then they want to hear from you, and you want to hear from them, and you’re connected now. People don’t ignore that. There’s not really a SPAM filter for text message. You don’t get a message from Apple or Google, “Hey we just blocked this text message.” If someone’s truly interested and they’re willing to share that mobile number with you and say, “Yeah, definitely text me. We’ll get together, I wanna followup” or “I wanna loop in Jimmy or Sally on our team and we’re gonna all take a look at your product or service,” then it’s game time. “Make the connection on LinkedIn, do the email, but a text message is a great way. First in-person, then text – you’re rolling. Mentions Connect with Brandon on LinkedIn Reach out via email: brandon@cirrusinsight.com Check out Cirrus Insight on Facebook Website: https://www.cirrusinsight.com/ Miller Heimann Sales Methodology (Conceptual Selling) Dreamforce Conference (September 25-28)

“Video is one of the most compelling and impactful ways to capture that more authentic version of a brand.” – Jason Hsiao, Animoto   Curious about how to use video effectively to market your business? Hit that play button right away. Today’s guest is Jason Hsiao, Chief Video Officer & Co-Founder of Animoto. Animoto is an award-winning online video maker that makes it easy for anyone to create professional-quality video. Used by millions of consumers, businesses, photographers and educators, Animoto is deeply rooted in the belief that making videos should be simple, cost-effective, and accessible to everyone. FULL BIO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhsiao/ In this episode, we talk about how Animoto started, niching down, how to be customer-centric, video as a sales tool, video as a marketing tool, how to use video to build relationships, why you should be using video to promote your business, and a lot more. If you read my show notes, I often say “there’s a lot to learn from this episode, so stick around.” I meant it the last 106 times, and I’m going to say it again today: There’s a lot to learn from this episode – not just about video marketing, but also about business. So stick around and enjoy the show! How Animoto Came To Be My previous life was as a TV producer. I was doing a bunch of stuff for MTV, Comedy Central. My friend, who is now my co-founder, Stevie, he was actually also working in TV, doing documentary work for ABC – a big network here in the States. We actually both had pretty successful careers going for us in TV and film. The backstory is we actually went to high school and college together with a couple of other co-founders. We’ve been friends for a long time; we always loved video and the magic of video. We were always making all sorts of videos in the evenings and weekends, and in school. Fast forward 10 years after college, the fact that we were both going to be in New York City, living our dream jobs and working in television was pretty cool. But I think for us, it was this time of anxiousness. We could see how quickly everything was changing around us. Technology was just changing everything, and these mobile things – they were getting smaller and smaller to the point that you could fit them in your pocket and even fold them up. It just seemed inevitable that these things would probably one day have internet connection or maybe even a camera. And then this whole emergence of cloud computing right then, they just blew our mind about what could be possible with all that. It felt inevitable that everything was going to change very soon, and that video had to be central to a lot of that, that video would no longer be reserved for these big, huge, giant companies like Viacom and stuff that could afford 200-person teams to put out one minute of video. “Everyday people should be able to embrace and enjoy the power of video.” When I say that today, it’s like, “Well, duh?” But 12 years ago, that was not the case. Phones did not yet have cameras or internet or anything like that. Niching Down This is probably the best thing you can do for your business. A lot of people would give their left arm to have multiple lines of revenue and customers, but in the early stages of small companies and startups, it’s really important to have that laser focus. “In the beginning, we had a lot of “faux” success.” But here’s the thing – I think this is a great lesson and not something uncommon to a lot of entrepreneurs out there. When we launched Animoto, we had a lot of different people using it; more people creating videos than we could have thought. We had photographers, moms, travelers, churches, nonprofits, realtors, restaurants, marketers – all sorts of businesses – and we’re like, “Oh my gosh! This is amazing!” Who wouldn’t want their product or service being used by everyone? Fast forward a few years after that, I think what we realized is not only did it become really hard for us operationally to run a business where we were serving a little bit of every one –. “When everyone’s asking for different things, how do you prioritize and who are you actually good for?” To be honest, we became a bit of a patchwork quilt, kind of like a Frankenstein of a product and organization, because we’re just a little bit all over the place and it was reflected in the product experience. So we had this big moment maybe five years into it, where we said, “Listen, would we rather be kind of good at a lot of things, or best in the world at one thing?” Imagine if every single person in our company was pointed in the exact same direction – not kind of generally in the same direction, but laser-focused in the exact, same direction – how powerful our impact could be? Video as a Tool to Amplify Your Marketing I think the other misnomer [sic] is that “Oh yeah, videos on social media – it’s just about capturing awareness, very top of the funnel type of thing, just come and get people’s attention.” But what’s happening is, increasingly, you can serve more and more parts of that customer journey before people even get to your website. You can not only create that awareness; you can get people interested, you can actually even educate them about what it is you have to offer. It’s amazing. Increasingly we just hear people, “Oh yeah, by the time I get to their site, I just buy because I’ve already learned everything.” We work with a bunch of younger folks, they don’t even go to websites anymore. When they hear about a new brand, the first thing they do is they go on social to see what’s happening on Instagram or Facebook. And they’re like, “Oh yeah, I love this company.” “Have you ever been to the website?” “No, why would I?” Because it’s all on social, right? Mentions Connect with Jason on Twitter and LinkedIn Website: https://animoto.com/ Jason’s special offer for our listeners: https://animoto.com/entrepreneursthatsell

“There’s a higher consciousness behind everything, and there’s nothing new under the sun – all information is already here. We just need to align to the information.” – Reggie Mckiver You might be thinking, “Whoa, Chris. What does higher consciousness have to do with sales?” Listen to the episode to find out. Today’s amazing guest is Reggie Mckiver. Reggie is a Holistic Intuitive & teacher who has a unique gift to be able to ignite instant life transformation by showing you how to clear the energy of your past; push through the obstacles of your present; and get you on the journey to your new reality of living the life that you want. Reggie is also a successful Herbalist & Spiritual Mentor and entrepreneur and has served his global clientele for almost 20 years. He truly loves to give you the tools that will change your mindset so you can have the life that you deserve with​ ease & grace. FULL BIO: http://www.coachreggiemckiver.com/about.html   In this episode, we talk about coming into alignment, being confident of and embracing your gifts, the voice at the back of your head, vision, how to deal with self-doubt, core beliefs, mindset, and many more. I was blown away by the wisdom that Reggie shared throughout the episode, so click that play button and listen until the end. Coming Into Alignment In life, people try so hard to find out what to do with their life. “What to do? What do I do? How do I use it?” Well, I teach coming to alignment because with every gift you were given in life, alignment is trying to find you. Imagine taking the pressure off of yourself where you’re trying to figure out what to do next. My teaching is simply coming into alignment. Are You Standing In Your Own Way? You wouldn’t believe how many people are in their own way. If it’s marketing, if it’s sales – to me, salesmen are some of the greatest people on earth, because they have the chance to influence someone else’s mindset about something, that they may or may not know anything about. “What do you see with most people? They come in and say, “Well, I have a problem with rejection. I have a problem with trying to sell people concepts.” They have all of these issues, but it’s their issues surrounded by a product that will work. “ And when you put your issues – I don’t care if it’s gold – if you put your issues on the selling of gold, someone will always outdo you even in selling something like gold. “So what I teach people to do is this: either you’re going to stand in your way, or either you’re going to be successful.“ Everyone has a gift, and everyone fits into the universe. Every one of us, whether it’s communication, whether it’s knowing, whether it’s intuition, we all have gifts. For every gift that shows up in your life, there’s something negative that will equally challenge the gift that’s inside of you. Most people, they look at the negative things that happen with that, and they take the negative everywhere they go, when they are gifted to do the job. “A negative energy shows up to kill, steal and destroy. It is an age-old method. If you allow this form of thinking to overtake you, then it would do what it’s designed to do.” But I always ask the question, “When will you allow your gift to speak for you? When will you move out of your way and allow the gifting to take over and do what it’s supposed to do?” Genuine Confidence Did you ever struggle putting your gift out there with confidence? Let’s call a spade a spade – we are talking to a group of people in this world, the general population (for lack of a better word) who are not necessarily in tune with the energy that you’re expressing. Do you struggle to put yourself out there confidently, knowing that the majority of the population think that what you’re talking about and what I’m talking about is quite “woo-woo”? No. Starting out, I did. Now, I realized, once you realize your place in the universe, nothing in the world can stop you. Because instead of looking at your obstacles, you look through your obstacles. “If you are in the practice of raising the frequency and the vibration of everyone you come in contact with. There is no clearer thing in the universe or in the world than the day you discover your purpose. That day when you discover your purpose is simple. “ I teach people: People will always say what you say to yourself. And if you have a block in your subconscious mind that says, “They’re going to think that this is out of this world. They’re not going to believe me.” “If that utters louder than your gift, then every time you open up with your gift, you will hear what you said in the back of your mind anyway.” When I first started out, I would say, “Hey, I opened up an herbal store in a small town.” They said, “This business is not going to make it. People are not going to believe that. They need modern this, they need this.” And I said, “Well, I’m here because what you’re doing, I agree with totally. But it’s not working.” I heard you, I heard you said it wouldn’t last, but I’m going to show you. And here’s the funny thing that happened with that: the same doctor, the same person who said I wouldn’t make it, after he saw the success of the business, he sent someone in the business to get something for him for an issue that he was having. Mentions Connect with Reggie on Facebook Shoot him an email: reggie@reggiemckiver.com Website: http://www.reggiemckiver.com

“At the end of the day, we all want to be and feel perfect, but we don’t want to buy perfect – unless we’re buying a Mercedes.” Today’s guest is Digital Marketing Sales Expert, Heather Havenwood. Heather mentors coaches, experts, & service providers how to get media exposure to make more money. As a sales and marketing expert, she helps entrepreneurs define the messaging, the marketing, the positioning, the packaging, & the media that is best for their business & life. Read Heather’s FULL Bio http://sexybossinc.com/sexy-boss-about/   In this episode, we talk about her transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur, the two things that people buy, the two things entrepreneurs should focus on first before doing content marketing or Facebook ads, moving the free line, and empathy and being authentic. I enjoyed every minute of our conversation and I hope you do too. Click that play button to listen! Learning By Doing I learned by doing; I didn’t really have a sales process. It wasn’t until years later that I started in the information marketing business and the seminar business, where I was traveling around the country doing 40-50 events every year, that I had to learn a process. In that sales environment, I'm sitting in front of a room of strangers, and I had 90 minutes to get $3,000 out of their pockets. And if I didn’t get that money, we’re eating ramen noodles tonight. If we got that money, we’re eating Ruth’s Chris Steak. That was the choice I had. “That’s when I started to learn direct response copy, know, like and trust, connection, and how do you move someone in from the fence to closing the deal – all those little nuances got really fine-tuned there.” Two Things That People Buy “There are only two things that people buy: hope and confidence. It’s hope and confidence.” If you think about it, you’re sitting in a room, we say whatever we say, they give us three grand, and they walk out with a piece of paper, and they walk out with the potential in making money. It’s the exact, same sales process that every university on the planet sells to the kids. “If you go to our university, the potential of you coming out with a job, potentially, maybe, at $75,000/year, is higher than if you go to that university.” Right? At the end of the day, a piece of paper. Message, Market, Media I work on three things with my clients: message, market, media. The first thing is that message, which is all the sales side. And then who’s the market? Is the message and market matching? Where are they? Is it on Facebook ads? Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s on a thing called a phone call. Don’t go crazy on me, but it could be on LinkedIn; it could not be. It could be at trade shows; it could not be. “Before we ever get to where they are, you’ve got to make sure of the message and market. I work on those first two, and sometimes we’re on those for a long time because they’re not matching.” I can work on those for a while, until we get to the media buying. You can’t really get to media buying, which is all that is – the funnel-making, the Facebook ads, the email marketing, podcast – all those things are media. All those are media; all those are tools. Email marketing, podcasting, Facebook ads, YouTube ads – those are tools. But if you don’t have the message and market right, step 1 and 2, it doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it. It just doesn’t matter. I work a lot on the first two, and then when they’re ready, I allow them to go to media buying. Empathy “At the end of the day, we all want to be and feel perfect, but we don’t want to buy perfect – unless we’re buying a Mercedes.” If we’re hiring a coach or a consultant, we want to know that they’re going to give us the results, but we also want to know that they can understand our struggles and our concerns.   Mentions Connect with Heather on LinkedIn and Facebook Website: http://sexybossinc.com/ Sexy Boss - How Female Entrepreneurs Are Changing the Rule Book for Money, Success and Even Sex, and How You Can Too! by Heather Havenwood Schedule a free 15-minute call with Heather here: https://callwithheather.com http://askheatherann.com/  

Entrepreneurs can find success in online sales and marketing, but we should not forget about the more traditional methods. When you connect with prospects face-to-face (networking), invite them for coffee, or send thank you notes through the mail, it sends a more powerful, more personal message than just connecting with them through chat. Whatever the case, if you want to be successful in sales, you need to start building and nurturing your relationships – online and offline. Today’s guest is Lisa Haydon. Lisa is the founder and President of Pivotal Coaching Inc. She is a leadership development consultant, executive coach, and mentor sought by business owners and corporations for help in achieving professional and business growth. The distinctive marker of her work is her growth mindset and execution focus. She leverages nearly 30 years' corporate experience in business, finance, leadership, change and revenue growth for her clients’ success. Read Lisa’s FULL Bio https://www.pivotalcoachingservices.com/about In this episode, we talk about her approach to sales, her networking philosophy, building systems, outsourcing process mapping, mentoring, and a lot more. Click the play button to listen to the 30-minute episode.    The Value of Building Offline Connections I’ve always done big, complex, B2B sales. As you well know, there are long sales cycles. They take a fair amount of resiliency; they ebb and flow. The deals that I’ve done have never been easy, but it’s all I’ve known. I was comfortable in big, complex sales cycles. In my own business, there’s a couple of things I would share. While the sales process was comfortable, the market and taking my own brand to market has been harder. People have very distinctive views on the impact of executive coaching in the corporate world, so I have to overcome those perceptions. One of my big focuses is around using coaching programs to support the results for corporations, which is a little different. Most times, for corporations, it would be a one-to-one. For example, you would hire me to work with one of your team, and I’m really trying to get a program approach. So it’s a different product that I’m taking to market, and that makes it a little harder. “I lean a lot on my relationships, so I have a good network. That’s been invaluable. Referrals are huge. The testaments of my work and the clients who have experienced my work are a big, important part.” I also do cold-calling. If I'm going to work with businesses and their leaders around true growth, as you well know, building existing relationships is more comfortable. Selling your products – when you do cold start to origination, that is a very distinct style. I do that as well because I think it’s good skills practice for both myself, but in the work that I provide my clients as well. Getting In Touch With Your Prospects I have a leads list, and I would say I’m a little more traditional. There’s some people who use a lot of the digital marketing, and for me, in the big corporations that I’m cold-calling into, I still believe that you have to get in there on a personal basis. Part of that is I know that if I can get that conversation, that’s going to be where the difference is made. I do an email outreach, I do the phone call, I do the connection on LinkedIn. As you would well know, the success rate in working through a lead list is low, and it’s always hard on the ego, but there’s been some good conversations that have come out of that. You just have to try; you just don’t know. Turn “Maybe” Into A Definite “Yes” or “No” The “maybe” place is really hard. When people drag out the maybe’s, it takes your energy and your effort from other things. I’ve been calling on relationship-based opportunities, and because of that, some of my relationships don’t want to say ‘no’ to me and they feel like they’re going to hurt my feelings. I’ve now gotten very direct and say, “Look, please don’t feel like you have to say yes or maybe with me. If it’s a fit, great. If not, that’s okay. It doesn’t change our relationship; I get that. But don’t feel like you have to give me hope.”     Mentions Connect with Lisa on LinkedIn and Instagram Website: https://www.pivotalcoachingservices.com/

Do you ever wonder what it takes to create your own event – a webinar, seminar, or conference – where you can position yourself as a thought leader as well as meet hundreds or thousands of potential clients? Our guest for today is Rich Brooks, author of The Lead Machine and Founder of flyte new media & The Agents of Change. His company works with SMBs and nonprofits to help them increase their online visibility, drive more qualified traffic to their sites, and convert that traffic into leads and business. Read Rich's FULL BIO https://www.linkedin.com/in/therichbrooks/ In this episode, we talk about sales and personal growth, the importance of having a working website, and leveraging events – what makes a successful event, how to set it up, how to make sure people come – and a lot more. There’s a lot to learn in this episode so click that play button to listen. Enjoy!   What Do You Do When Somebody Says ‘No’? Rich actually had a background in sales. His previous job was selling products to nursing homes, and he did that for four years. And those were probably the most important four years of his life. I was a very shy person; I had very little self-confidence. My boss liked me and took me on the road, taught me a little bit about sales, I listened to all those sales tips and stuff like that. And so I learned a lot about sales, and also the process of not taking it personally. I learned that just because somebody says ‘No’, it’s not a reflection necessarily on you. There’s a million reasons they might say no. That was actually a huge part of my growth as a human being. I would say my sales job was possibly more important than me going to college. That’s how much of an impact it had on my life. The Evolution of Sales When Rich started out, he literally opened up the Yellow Pages and went down the Graphic Designers list. When he moved to Maine a couple of years later, he did the same thing. He called up each graphic designer on the list and found the ones that were looking to do more websites but didn’t know how to do it and developed a relationship with them. That was an early way in which he grew. These days, a lot of our sales comes through inbound marketing, which is what we do for a lot of our clients. We do things like search engine optimization, paid search, Facebook ads, a lot of content marketing – that sort of stuff. That’s been a big component that’s really grown over the years. And then the third leg I guess would be putting on events. Small events that take place in our office, sometimes we do these masterclasses and we limit it to six people. On the other side of the spectrum, we put on this event called Agents of Change, which brings in 400 people, and then maybe another 100-200 people who buy virtual passes. Work on Your Website Everybody’s an armchair detective. Everybody’s already done a lot of the research online. If you’re not putting out on your website all the information they need to make a decision, then they’re gonna go to your competitor’s website to get that same information. I’m all about putting out that content. I try and share as much as I possibly can.   Mentions Connect with Rich on LinkedIn The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing by Rich Brooks Website: https://www.takeflyte.com/ Use my code chrisspurvey to get a $25 discount! → The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference Permission Marketing by Seth Godin To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink  

It’s Time to Sell’s 100th episode is here! I am so grateful to everyone who continues to listen to the podcast. Do you have ideas on how we can make this show better? I’d love to hear it in the comments! Our guest for today is Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He helps organizations, leaders and individuals reach their potential through remarkable learning approaches. He is a world-renowned leadership expert, a two-time bestselling author, speaker, consultant, trainer, coach, leader, learner, husband and father (not necessarily in that order). Kevin’s specialties include leadership, teams and teamwork, organizational culture, facilitating change, organizational learning and more. He is the bestselling author of Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time (Jossey-Bass Publishing 2007), a leadership primer designed to help you learn and master the 13 competencies of remarkable leaders; and Vantagepoints on Learning and Life (Dog Ear Publishing 2006), a collection of his email essays on learning from everyday experiences. His other books include #LeadershipTweet: 140 Bite Sized Ideas to Help You Become the Leader You Were Born to Be (Happy About, 2009), and the co-author of From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Read Kevin’s FULL BIO https://blog.kevineikenberry.com/about-kevin/ In this episode, we talk about the importance of having a sales mindset when running a business, how his company has grown, the future of leadership, and more. There’s a lot to learn in this episode so click that play button to listen. Enjoy!   If You Have a Business, You Have to Have a Sales Mindset When it comes to running a business, it’s not about having the best product, or having a world-changing product – it’s about selling it to those who need it. We have to have a sales mindset because it’s not about the best product – really. You’ve got a good enough product, and you may have a great product, and you may have a world-changing product, but it doesn’t mean people are just going to show up. I don’t know if I embodied it, but I certainly understood it. There are people that would probably say, “Well, Kevin, you’re naturally good at that” – which I think is silly; I don’t think anyone is. To anyone who’s here who say, “Well, that’s not my natural gift,” I say, “So what? You ride a bicycle. You weren’t born being able to ride it; you learned how to ride it by putting your butt in the seat.” You’re not going to grow your business without it and you can’t delegate all of it. Kevin’s Journey If we were to go back, I would say it was just me for probably the first 10-ish, 8-ish years. It was just me, and I worked for some folks on a subcontractor basis. It started about 15 years ago, I started having team members and for a long time, there was just one. Or one in a day, or one intern in the summer kind of a thing. But Chris, our team now is 14 or 15 folks spread out across the United States, not counting subcontractors that do coaching and training for us as well. There is a transition. I think it’s a really important one for the people listening if you’re in that spot where Chris is. But you want to be in a place where you have a broader team, for whatever reasons. Long-Distance Leadership Kevin and I also talked about his newest book, The Long-Distance Leader. He shares that this book is all about where the world is and where it’s going in terms of leadership, which is more and more leaders are leading more and more folks who aren’t down the hall. If you look at my team, I’ve got some people in the building today. I’ve got some people who work and could’ve driven here today but didn’t, or don’t. And I’ve got people spread out literally across the United States, nearly from sea to shining sea. That’s where the world is and that’s where the world is going. Leadership doesn’t change, but how we do it in some ways does need to change, and those changes are nuanced and small, but super important. You know, small hinges swing big doors. We believe this book finds a place in the marketplace that hasn’t been served, and it’s going to help a whole lot of leaders who maybe even – and our research for the book even says that a lot of leaders say, “I think I’m holding it together and doing this pretty well” but they’re not sure, and what a lot of them are doing is just paddling harder.   Mentions Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn and Twitter Website: https://www.kevineikenberry.com/ Kevin Eikenberry’s blog: https://blog.kevineikenberry.com/ Remarkable Leadership by Kevin Eikenberry Check out his newest book, The Long-Distance Leader: Rules for Remarkable Remote Leadership https://www.remoteleadershipinstitute.com/

When you attend networking events, do you just go from one person to another, introduce yourself, then pitch your services? Or do you get there without any expectations other than getting to know other entrepreneurs and the interesting things they do? Our guest for today is Shirlene Reeves. Shirlene is a Business Success Coach, Massive Visibility Media™ Trainer, Certified Financial Educator®, International Speaker and Media Show Host. She supports business owners to create properly priced programs that sell easily and make money, and works with her clients to define their target market, create programs based on client requests and then designs an easy-to-follow Million Dollar Business Plan on a budget. Read Shirlene’s Full Bio In this episode, we talk about focusing on your target market, making relationships a priority, and effective networking tips that are so simple, you’d wonder why you haven’t thought of them. Our conversation got cut off as I was asking Shirlene where people can find her online, but you can find all of that information below. Go ahead and click on that play button and I hope you enjoy this episode! “I Had to Do Sales, or My Business Wouldn’t Survive” Shirlene had this business that she bootstrapped from zero to multimillions, and she was definitely down the rabbit hole. Her clients were CEOs at Wells-Fargo, CEOs and Vice Presidents at Bank of America – all these really, really big companies – and she thought, “How in the world am I going to sell to these people? I’m not anybody.” Most of us feel that way in the beginning, right? You’re not anybody and how are they going to respect you and feel strongly that you are the person that can provide the best service for you. Have you ever felt that way? So it was really, really difficult. I knew, at the time, that I had to do sales or my business wouldn’t survive. And I found out that building relationships first is what created all the sales for me, and that’s how I increased that specific business to multimillions, and I had 23,000 working under me at that time. I had to feed those families, so if I didn’t know how to get the sale, I could never feed all those families. Relationship first, Sales second You have to build a relationship first, and let them get to know you, that you do have integrity, you do show up on time – and that is huge, showing up on time – and that you will do what you say you’re going to do. Those are the three things I always honor. That’s how I created my business. Networking Tips When attending networking events, Shirlene’s favorite question to ask is, “Tell me about your business.” That’s it. Nothing less, nothing more. Then the other person launches into three minutes of explanation. Now if you’re in a networking group, that’s all you have time for, nothing more. So if that’s all you have time for and all you’ve done is pitch yourself and hand somebody a business card, it’s going to go in the trash. But if you meet someone and you have a genuine interest in who they are, and your heart is open to listening and not jumping in and barreling in on your own comments and your own reasons for how you can help them, then they will keep your card because you’ve touched their heart. It makes a big difference.   Mentions Connect with Shirlene through LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook Check out her website at https://maximizeyourwealthnow.com/ Selling Through Your Heart: Empowering You To Build Relationships For Financial Freedom by Shirlene Reeves, CFEd  

Today we are going to talk about writing and emotional intelligence: two things that we can master through consistency, and with a lot of practice. Our guest for today is Justin Bariso, Author at EQ Applied, Management Thinker and Doer, and Inc and Time Contributor. He is passionate about the topic of Emotional Intelligence and writes about how it works in the real world, and how to make emotions work for you instead of against you. In this episode, we talk about Justin’s book, and how becoming a better writer can benefit your business, your brand, and your personal life. Click on the play button below to listen to this episode! Start Writing Today Everybody has expertise in something. We all have our personal experiences. So write about what you’ve learned, even if it’s just the uniqueness of the story you have to tell. If you can articulate that story, it’s going to reach people. “I recommend writing to anyone, even if you don’t necessarily feel like you’re a great writer. None of us feel that way in the beginning. Even if you are talented at it…you’re still going to make all kinds of mistakes in the beginning. That’s how you get better. It’s not just about writing to get better; writing does so much for clarifying your thinking. It helps you to be able to really see your own goals and visions and to be able to articulate those so much better. “ What Makes You a Better Writer The answer is: consistency. I just barely passed university English, so I’m no writer. But because I decided to jump into this journey and just start writing, I’d say I’ve improved as a writer even without the intent of improving as a writer. I’ve actually leveled up in my ability to communicate with intent and purpose from a business perspective. In my consulting engagements, I help some of my local clients build out their sales culture for them. In some cases, I'm working with the CEO who’s going into meetings and taking notes, and then they have to follow up with an email. I’m actually doing a little bit of reviewing their emails and within 30 seconds I can change up their formatting, change a few words, and I would argue that I’m able to make that email at least 80-90% more impactful. And all of this is a result of this writing journey that I went through. Emotional Intelligence “What I haven’t seen a lot of people write about over the years with Emotional Intelligence is the ability for it to go bad. What I mean by that is you see right now, there’s a lot of people using emotions in a way to manipulate others; we’ve seen it in the course of fake news, where news that is not really accurate, spreads. A few people are spreading it on purpose to try to get those seeds sown, and the next thing you know, it just organically grows like wildfire. That’s one of the things that this book gets into that not a lot of people have written about before. Many people have spoken about emotional intelligence like it’s the end-all solution to a lot of problems. It is a solution to many problems, but the thing is, it’s a tool that you can use. Someone can use their intelligence to do lots of good and become a lifesaver, like a life-saving surgeon, or do lots of harm and be a master criminal. It’s the same thing with emotional intelligence. You can use the ability to reach others at an emotional level to do really good things, or you can use it to spread deceit, anger and fear. One of the things that we get into the book is how to protect yourself from that, and how to be able to see through how others are trying to manipulate you.”   Mentions Connect with Justin on LinkedIn and Twitter https://www.eqapplied.com/ Get the Book: EQ, APPLIED: The Real-World Guide to Emotional Intelligence

The way people buy is very different nowadays, and it seems like you need to be in multiple places at once. You need to be offline, servicing clients well and picking up referrals, and at the same time, be online so people find you when they search for you. Today on the podcast we have Benjamin Walker, Founder and CEO at Transcription Outsourcing, LLC. They work with government agencies, single practice attorneys, physicians, as well as entire university systems to provide fast, accurate and reliable transcription services. In this short episode, we talk about the evolution of sales, the importance of an online presence, and being the face of your company. Click on the play button below to listen to this episode! The Evolution of Sales Sales did not come naturally for Ben. He realized he wasn’t very good at it, but he forced himself to do it. Sales was easier when he first started out, especially in the medical industry because back then his was the only transcription company that would go to medical events, so they didn’t have a lot of choices. “Once you get in with a few people, the word spreads. It was easier then. Now, seven and a half, eight years later, everyone Googles it before they even pick up the phone or look at your business card again. It’s different.” Professional Branding It fell into place when he first met John White at Social Marketing Solutions. John always popped up on his LinkedIn feed and so one day he sent him a message, asking to meet up. “I’ve used this PR company and I’m not sure it’s working the way I had hoped. He went through all my stuff and said, “Well it’s because you’re not the face of the company. You’re trying to make Transcription Outsourcing in your logo the face of the company – it needs to be you.” So we talked about that and he said, “Ben, no one’s going to promote your company for you; you have to do it yourself.” Focus on What You Are Good At If you’re an entrepreneur, there will come a time when you just can’t do everything. You will have to focus on what you’re good that, and hire other people for things that are not within your zone of genius. “I came to the realization two, two and half years ago that my employees were better at closing prospects than I was. Now when I get calls or emails for transcription services, I forward it to the appropriate person that runs that team, and then I let them run with the lead. They close more than me.”   Mentions Connect with Ben on LinkedIn and Twitter https://www.transcriptionoutsourcing.net/

When your business isn’t where you want it to be, it’s very easy to exchange your email for the “10x Your Business Blueprint” or “6 Steps to 6 Figures Video Series” because you think that the key to escaping business plateau is in the next free program. There’s a ton of FREE information on the internet, and some of them are useful. But have you ever stopped to think that maybe what you need isn’t more information? Today on the podcast we have Mindset Coach and Business Advisor, Jennifer Trask. Jennifer helps coaches and healers build profitable, sustainable and fun businesses since late 2012. She runs a full-time coaching business, helping coaches from around the world build their businesses to fit their lifestyles and dreams. In this episode, we talk about the importance of being ready for business growth, how to build your self-worth, what to look for in a coach and starting where you are. Click on the play button below to listen to this lighthearted and wisdom-filled episode! “If there’s something that’s not in your business yet, it’s because you’re not ready for it.” “Over the years, I started creating programs – I have six products now, and I just let it all unfold at a pace that felt good for me. In the beginning, I was like, “I’m going to make one million dollars in my first year!” and what I’ve really learned is the journey to becoming someone who can bring in seven and eight figures is a process. There is so much to learn. What I learned partly kicking and screaming was that I decided I wanted to just let the business evolve at a pace that felt good for me so that I could enjoy my life as well as grow the business, and do it on my terms. It’s very easy to get tempted into all the messaging that is in the industry, especially if you’re trying to grow from an online marketing perspective, to trying to have these six-figure launches and this and that. One of the things that I’ve learned is if there’s something that’s not in your business yet, it’s because you’re not ready for it. And so your job is to be ready, and then when you’re ready, the opportunity will present itself, and it will flourish, and it will be much easier than trying to do something before you’re really ready for it.” “Owning a business has been the best developer of self – of me, of almost anything I’ve been through – because it just forces you to look at yourself from so many angles.”   Hire someone you connect with Business is just like dating. If you have 10 potential coaches in front of you, choosing the “right” person for you depends on where you’re at in your business, and what you need. Sometimes you don’t even know what you need, so you should go interview different people who you think can help you and find out how they can help you and how they see the problem. “If you’ve got 10 suitors in front of you, and on paper they’re all perfect for you, but you go on one date with each person, you’re going to be lucky if you have a connection with even one. I think there are a lot of great coaches out there, but the key is you have to find the person you connect with.”   There’s nothing wrong with being new “When I was new, what I would tell people is, “These are the concepts. Let me explain to you how it can work.” And I would say to them, “I’m working on getting case studies and I’m priced that way. Do you want to be one?” I never embellished where I was, I always embraced where I was, and that’s perfect because there are people who only have the budget for someone who’s newer. And that’s fine. Start where you are.” Mentions Connect with Jennifer on Facebook and LinkedIn http://jennifer-trask.com/

For those just starting out on their entrepreneurial journey online, hearing “SEO” and “Affiliate marketing” may seem daunting. Our guest today, however, makes it all easy to understand. Today on the podcast we have SEO Expert, Greg Jeffries. Greg is a designer, entrepreneur and an internet marketer. He is passionate about online marketing and his top strengths include: creating strategies and organizing information and complex workflows into simple processes, search engine optimization, and developing various design and creative solutions. In this episode, we talk about how he got started in affiliate marketing and SEO consulting, the tools he recommends and strategies and tactics that you can apply to your own business. If you’re an entrepreneur, or if you want to make a mark online, click on that play button below to listen to the rest of the episode. Reach out to people who know what they’re doing Like many online entrepreneurs, I tried figuring things out and doing things on my own. I did that for a while, and it was a hit-and-miss. So I’ve learned to ask help where I need it most. I sought out coaches, took courses, and hired people who are skilled in doing things that are not the focus of my business. “The live events for affiliate and internet marketing – that’s where you meet people that are hopefully crushing it, and if they’re not, at least the caliber of people that show up to these events are ones that are hopefully serious because they’ve forked out a couple thousand dollars to be there. That was a big turning point for me when I finally got out of my comfort zone and stopped trying to figure it out on my own. All these people in the planet, they’re already doing the things that you probably want to do and making the money that you want. So just go and try to find these people. A lot of times you’re not going to get access to those people online, unfortunately. SEO and affiliate marketing tactics “I just create a bunch of content, videos and blog posts with long-tail keywords revolving around ClickFunnels and related software. I just provide value and solutions in exchange for that. To promote ClickFunnels – and this applies to any product or service – I don’t try to just promote ClickFunnels by itself and say things like, “You should get ClickFunnel, it’s a great tool! Oh and by the way, I get a commission.” I try to build ClickFunnels into some sort of a system and be like, “Here’s how to x, y and z. You’re gonna need this tool, you’re gonna need this traffic source, you’re gonna need this – and once you put them all together, you get this result.” And so it just becomes natural to be like, “Okay, the first step is to get ClickFunnels. It’s part of the system.” Instead of just saying, “ClickFunnels is a great tool! If you want to make money online, it’s a sales funnel builder tool! Just point and click and you’re going to be making money!” I like to give people some sort of a blueprint. The people that are already marketers, they know what it does and they may or may not buy under your affiliate link. But I try to position the offer towards complete beginners, generally. The 3 S’s Simple, scalable, sustainable – Greg’s approach to SEO meets all those criteria. “Simple. You can get as detailed and as elaborate with SEO as you want, but that was what held me back with SEO. I was trying to be the smartest guy in the room, and it just crippled me. I had to dumb it down so I can understand it. Scalable. I mostly focus on long-tail keywords instead of shorter ones, like “ClickFunnels Review”. I’ll focus on something like “ClickFunnels Mailchimp integration,” something longer and more specific. The reason I do that because long-tail keywords are less competitive and they have more buyer intent behind them, so they’re easier to rank for. There’s more people typing in long-tail keywords. There may be more traffic for shorter keywords, but there’s either equal to or greater traffic for long-tail keywords and there’s a lot more combinations of long-tail stuff. Most people, when you go to buying something online, or if you’re interested in buying something, you don’t just type “shoes”. Nobody does that. If you want a “red Nike men’s running shoes,” that’s what you type in because you want to narrow down the options. There’s tools like keywordtool.io that you can start with a root keyword and it will just spit out thousands of recommendations, and then I just take that list and create content around that. Mentions Connect with Greg on LinkedIn and Facebook https://www.seoaffiliatedomination.com/ https://keywordtool.io/ http://imsource.org

Today my special guest is Philip Singleton, CEO of Kansas City Web Design & SEO. Philip works in the web development space where he helps companies convert their static websites into lead-generating marketing platforms. He has since written several award-winning and best-selling books on lead generation, search engine optimization and web design. His book, SEO for Growth, was named be Forbes as the #1 SEO book to read for entrepreneurs. It has been endorsed by over 50 of the world’s top marketing experts, and listed as a top marketing book by Inc., Mashable, Oracle and The Huffington Post. In this episode, we talk about his entrepreneurial journey towards becoming THE SEO expert, launch tactics he used on his best-selling book, working on your online reputation, the power of reviews, and a lot more. If you’re an entrepreneur, or if you want to make a mark online, click on that play button below to listen to the rest of the episode.   Book launch tactics and endorsements – more than just “book bling” One of the things that Philip did during the launch of SEO for Growth was to work as many influencers as he could in the book, so that they will have a reason to link bank to it, talk about it and maybe even help him promote the book. “It got 50 endorsements. We purposely sided over 200 different digital marketers in the book and footnoted them and we also named 16 experts, so there was a specific expert with at least a one-page write-up at the end of every chapter. They basically became part of this book project, and in fact, the 16 authors that we had, we actually sent them their bios and then in every case, they actually edited it and gave us some feedback and kind of tweaked their chapter. So they became part of the project and invested in it, because we were saying, “In terms of this chapter we’re writing about, you should follow this expert because they’re at the top of their game in this chapter that we’re covering.” What we did when the book launch came out is we notified every single person in the book that had some kind of part. They became willing to help us in a lot of cases – not all of them, but a good percentage of them actually helped us market the book. Just a tweet from somebody like Larry Kim – Hubspot helped us market to some degree to their group because we had Brian Halligan who’s a co-founder of Hubspot – that was one of the things we worked in was to keep an SEO mindset and try to keep your web presence more of the book and drop more Easter eggs in there, so that you can get more benefit.” Most people think of endorsements as just “book bling” or to give it credibility, but it’s actually a way for you to propel the sales. We actually sold a lot of books and got best-seller status on Amazon for longer than I’ve ever had any book on it, because other people endorsed it and also helped us market it.” Your website is more than a digital brochure “I think the biggest mistake to me is that people still look at their website as a digital brochure. The reality is, these days, we are all internet companies because there’s no way to avoid some type of a followup search online. Unless you’ve got a website that you treat as a marketing platform that’s a referral source for the stuff that you’re doing, where you’re documenting your work and your testimonials and whatever types of things you have about you that get people to know, like and trust you and build that credibility, it has to be documented there so people can look at it. We have people call us up all the time, they don’t understand why when they invested in print, or TV or radio in the past, they got a predictable amount of sales, and they say, “We don’t think it’s working anymore”. It’s probably working really well, but the thing is that they’re going back to the internet to follow up on it and you’re losing to people that are working on their SEO and their online reputation and their social media presence. This happens all the time; we get people who invest in TV here locally and when you go look them up online, they have two one-star reviews. You just lost 90% of your TV demand that you created because the guy that’s above you that has 20 five-star reviews just got your TV advertising money.” Your online reputation is important We’ve become a review-based economy. Everybody almost looks up everything and everybody’s looking for social proof. If you don’t make trying to collect some client reviews and document that and republish on your website, making sure that it’s on the key places that you need it to be like Google, then you’re losing a huge opportunity because more and more people are looking for that evidence online to choose you. In fact, they’re not looking for a solution to a problem; they’re looking for THE solution to a problem. If your website kicks butt and if you have more reviews than anybody else, all of a sudden you’ve warmed up and now that sale becomes really easy because they come to you so warm that they’re almost hot. Mentions Connect with Philip on LinkedIn Buy SEOforGrowth Book on Amazon www.KCSEOPro.com www.KCWebDesigner.com www.SEOforGrowth.com