Podcast appearances and mentions of brandon bruce

On this episode of Big Ideas Welcome, host Chris McAdoo sits down with Brandon Bruce, the managing director of TechStars Industries of the Future in Knoxville, TN. Brandon has been a driving force in the local startup scene, leading this transformative accelerator and working with Market Square Ventures to invest in the brightest ideas in East Tennessee and beyond. Join in to get the inside scoop on Market Square Ventures and how they're fostering groundbreaking startups, fueling Knoxville's entrepreneurial spirit. You do not want to miss this!Listen to all episodes of the Big Ideas Welcome podcast, available now on your favorite streaming platforms and at bigideaswelcome.com.This Big Ideas Welcome podcast is brought to you by Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, hosted and curated by KEC chief of strategy  Chris McAdoo, and produced and edited by Palm Tree Pod Co.

As entrepreneurs, we are always searching for ways to take our big ideas to the next level. We explore markets, create innovative products, and build businesses that have impacts on your community. As important as all of this is, we often forget about the value of stepping away from our desks and out into the great outdoors. Whether it be for a hike through the woods, a meeting on a screen porch, or walking around the block, being outside can have a profound impact on our productivity and creativity. In this episode, our host Chris McAdoo is joined by Brandon Bruce to hear his idea of why getting outside can help you to put your big ideas into action! Brandon Bruce Instagram | LinkedIn | Website- - - - - - - - - -KEC: Instagram | Facebook | Website I Twitter | Linkedin#MadeforKnoxville WebsiteChris McAdoo: Instagram | LinkedIn | WebsiteSubscribe: Apple Podcast | SpotifyCheck Us Out: WebsiteIf you have any questions, comments, or big ideas of your own, email us at hello@bigideaswelcome.comThe show is Produced and Edited by Palm Tree Pod Co.

Himmel is out in the Middle East being Jewish so Don called up his buddy Brandon to hash out his issues.

Season 4 Episode 66 **recorded live in front of a YouTube audience** CLASS: #TechLabs FACULTY: Byron Patrick, Jason Staats, Brandon Bruce, Jared Smith TITLE: 2023 ABC Tournament Rap-Up Recap In this episode, Scott and Byron host the final battle between Jason Staats and Brandon and Jared from Uncat for the Accountant Bracket Challenge, ABC Tournament, aka March Appness. The contestants discuss their journey to the finals. Scott and Byron recall the making of the tournament and announce the winners of the Hawaii trip and the ABC tournament. Hear about Scott's exclusive Victory Rap Parody, the leaked Lazanis and Uncat files, while Brandon tells the story of the famous Felonious Slinky Paws picture in this exciting finish to the first-ever ABC March Appness Tournament! Scott Introduces the final contestants Scott and Byron recall how Uncat was the "Undercat" Jared shares his opinions on upcoming Excel features Jason Staats retells his journey to the finals and his interactions with Uncat before the tournament Scott and Byron talk about what the winner gets and how it was decided Jason recalls the nomination phase Jason talks about being a firm owner and content creator Jared lectures about cryptographically secure random numbers Hawaii Trip winner announced Other prize winners announced Winner of the ABC tournament announced Scott performs the Uncat Rap Scott talks about the making of the Uncat Rap Jason talks about the leaked Lezanus and Uncat files Brandon tells the story of the famous Felonious Slinky Paws picture Everyone gives final thoughts Shout Outs: Adam Slack, Ryan Lazanis, Blake, David, Cloud Accounting Podcast, Fin Daily, FreshBooks, Twyla Verhelst, Felonius Slinky Paws --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/accountinghigh/message

Uncat's current CEO is Brandon Bruce, who joined the organization in October 2019. Brandon spent the months of October 2019 through April 2020 as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Greater Sum Ventures before joining Uncat. From January 2011 to March 2019, Brandon co-founded Cirrus Insight and held the position of COO. In addition, from June 2009 to June 2012, Brandon served as Maryville College's director of gifts and grants. In September 1999, Brandon started their career as an operations manager at Rangefire Integrated Networks, where they remained until September 2000. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rush-tech-support/message

It's time for Big Ideas Welcome, a podcast from the  Knoxville Entrepreneur Center.  This week on the pod, host Chris McAdoo is joined by Brandon Bruce. Brandon hosted the Startup Knox Podcast and is the CEO, Co-founder at Uncat. Brandon is a serial entrepreneur, cyclist, runner, paddler, hiker, speaker, writer, and adventurer. In this episode, Chris and Brandon discuss the transition from the Startup Knox Podcast to the Big Ideas Welcome Podcast, podcast reviews, some of Brandon's favorite memories from the Startup Knox Podcast, the entrepreneurship scene in Knoxville, what it means to be "founder first," and what to expect for future episodes of Big Ideas Welcome. A big thanks to First Bank for supporting this show and the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center. In This Episode: Brandon Bruce Instagram | LinkedIn | Website KEC: Instagram | Facebook | Website I Twitter | Linkedin#MadeforKnoxville: https://www.madeforknoxville.com/Chris McAdoo: Instagram | LinkedIn | WebsiteFirst BankSubscribe: Apple Podcast | SpotifyCheck Us Out: WebsiteIf you have any questions, comments, or big ideas of your own, email us at hello@bigideaswelcome.com The show is Produced and Edited by Palm Tree Pod Co. 

Joining Don and David is St. George College theater professor Brandon Bruce and he takes us into the dismal and scary world of collegiate academia in 2022. Elements of self censorship regarding the creation and teaching of art during a cultural movement that values work that demonstrates the world the way it could be rather than the way it is are discussed. Apparently, his students feel Hamilton is a better play than Death of a Salesman which causes Don to figuratively shit his pants and David to spend ten minutes using his bidet.

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Cirrus Insight Co-Founder Brandon Bruce.    Brandon is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Cirrus Insight. Since founding the company in 2011, Cirrus Insight has been listed in the Inc 5000 ranking for three years in a row — A list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies.   Cirrus Insight is 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. It allows you to Track emails, schedule meetings, set follow-ups, and more, right from your inbox.   Brandon grew up in Los Olivos, a small California town of 800 people, and had only one classmate in grade school.   He loves endurance sports and raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 2002 as part of the Furnace Creek 508 (https://www.the508.net/). He finished in 35 hours and 7 minutes. He also enjoys hiking, camping, and building with Legos. Brandon lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Tricia, and their two children, Sonoma and Carson.   Brandon's advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders:   “Stay curious.” & “Have the ability to make decisions.”   In my conversation with Brandon, we covered a lot of the early days at Cirrus Insight. We focused on how Brandon and his Co-Founder, Ryan Huff, built the company from 0 to +250,000 users.   Some of the topics that we covered are:   Getting their first users. Converting them into paying customers. Pricing in the early days Vs Pricing now. Making their first sales hire. The bottom-up sales strategy. Creating your product roadmap based on feedback. Using partners to sell your product. Links & Resources:    Brandon on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce   Cirrus Insight – https://www.cirrusinsight.com Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:   BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia   Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you're listening to the show.

Today we continue our series of interviews in partnership with Webb School of Knoxville. Each student in the Introduction to Entrepreneurship & Design Thinking course will interview a local entrepreneur. In this episode,  Brandon Bruce interviews Jay Livingston, Chief Marketing Officer at Shake Shack.

Today we continue our series of interviews in partnership with Webb School of Knoxville. Each student in the Introduction to Entrepreneurship & Design Thinking course will interview a local entrepreneur. In this episode, Theron Hubbard ‘22 interviews Brandon Bruce, CEO of Uncat. 

In the first ever SOS doubleheader, Jade Adams and Brandon Bruce darken the door of the shop (separately), to give the current state of their entrepreneurship journeys. Brandon Bruce parlayed a law degree, a passion for disruption, and a penchant to serve - into the innovative tech product, Cirrus Insight. Now Brandon spends many of his days giving his time and resources to 501c3 non-profits and mentorship programs for Knoxville's youth. Jade Adams took her niche passion for indoor house plants and quickly built a following that started to view her as an authority on indoor botanicals. The 100Knoxville initiative noticed Jade's growth opportunities and chose Oglewood Ave. as a member of their first cohort of Black-owned businesses to recieve mentorship and financial infusion. Special thanks to SOS alum Chris McAdoo for the help with podcast intro.

One of the first and fastest ways to own your life is to take responsibility for your life. The good, the bad, the ugly -- it's all on you! Our perspectives, attitudes, reactions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs... these are all things that we control ourselves. Listen while Brandon walks us through owning his life.

Made Right Here is sponsored and produced by The IT Company and we are telling the stories of East Tennessee founders, creators, and builders, and their journey to creating successful organizations. From the idea behind it, to the impact it had on the community, their employees and their own lives, we're taking listeners, and viewers, behind the scenes of the movements they built and the people who helped build them!

Made Right Here is sponsored and produced by The IT Company and we are telling the stories of East Tennessee founders, creators, and builders, and their journey to creating successful organizations. From the idea behind it, to the impact it had on the community, their employees and their own lives, we're taking listeners, and viewers, behind the scenes of the movements they built and the people who helped build them!In part one we hear Brandon's story of growing up in a small rural town in the northern part of Southern California, complete with an outhouse, and how Brandon's environment, upbringing and opportunities shaped him into the eventual founder, creator and builder that he is today.Brandon's story weaves through growing up north of Santa Barbara, CA in a town of less than 900 people, going to a school that actually had an outhouse, and how these experiences of being outside, hiking, and exploring began to shape him into a creative problem solver, and eventually company builder. We hear about how a single decision Brandon made to enter an essay contest AND his own drive and persistence launched him into global travel at 16 years old, eventually landing him as a presented at the G7 Summit. The themes of being outside, being bored and having to figure it out, parents who supported him and also gave him the freedom to try things. Brandon's desire, commitment and persistence showed early but also shaped him to think bigger.  

We talk to Steve and Brandon about their product from Stream Labs that will help prevent flood damage in a home and detect micro water leaks. Save 8% on purchases at trutechtools.com with code knowitall, visit hvacknowitall.com for HVAC related articles and tips.

Jeff and Ryan are back from the future, where they saw today’s guest dominating the sympathy gift scene! Today, Brandon Bruce sits down with the “die”namic duo (funeral puns!) to discuss his company, Food Not Flowers! ALSO, CANA 2020 is going virtual! The guys give the inside scoop and let you know what’s going on with that! We cover all of this and more on this FN week! Check out this weeks guest: https://foodnotflowers.com/ Sponsors: CANA: https://www.cremationassociation.org/ DISRUPT Media - http://www.DISRUPTMedia.co Plotbox - https://www.plotbox.io/ C&J Financial - http://www.cjf.com/

Podcasting from Knoxville along the banks of the mighty Tennessee river, this is the Startup Knox Podcast featuring interviews with local entrepreneurs about their startups. I’m your host, Brandon Bruce. Join me every week to meet the local innovators striving to build the next wave of disruptive companies. We cover the gamut of the startup experience – the proverbial rollercoaster. The high highs of getting the first customer, hiring a great team, and landing a key investment. And the low lows of parting ways with a co-founder, losing a strategic account, and running out of cash. Not to mention the everyday stresses of meeting payroll, battling competitors, and navigating black swan events like a global pandemic. If you like the show, you can subscribe to listen to more interviews with Knoxville entrepreneurs. Please also leave a review on Apple, Google, Spotify, or your favorite listening platform. If you want to know more about any episode, check out the show notes on our website at startupknox.com. Also on our site, you can find a Startup Ecosystem Guide, a Startup Directory, an Investor Directory, and a curated Startup Events calendar for Knoxville. Join me for the first episode where I’ll talk with Anna Douglas, founder of SkyNano Technologies which recently raised $3.8 million dollars to further develop its patent-pending technology for making carbon supermaterials. Thanks for listening!

Brent sits down with Brandon Bruce, Director of Customer Support at Linux Academy. We explore the world of support, how his former role as professional chef informs his "Kitchen Brigade" approach to building a support team, analytics data's ability to reveal surprising user experience patterns, and more. Special Guest: Brandon Bruce.

Brent sits down with Brandon Bruce, Director of Customer Support at Linux Academy. We explore the world of support, how his former role as professional chef informs his "Kitchen Brigade" approach to building a support team, analytics data's ability to reveal surprising user experience patterns, and more. Special Guest: Brandon Bruce.

On this episode, We are doing a special preview for this Saturday's show from Mega Wrestling! "Crown Prince: A Night For Brandon Bruce", which will be at St. John's Gym in Elyria, Ohio! Join Justin (@HeavyseT330), and Jeff Traxler as they talk about some matches on the card and why this event is happening.   Rate, Review, and Subscribe on: -Apple Podcasts -Google Podcasts -Stitcher -TuneIn -Spotify -iHeartRadio -YouTube -Podbean   E-Mail: WrestlingCheers@gmail.com Twitter: @WrestlingCheers Facebook: @WrestlingCheers  Instagram: @WrestlingCheers Merch: What A Maneuver    Wrestling Cheers: " Where Everybody Knows Your Name"

On this podcast episode Jeb Blount and Brandon Bruce, COO of Cirrus Insight, discuss how to get the most out of the modern CRM.

The sales landscape is always changing but by gathering insights from other sellers we can determine how to handle major challenges when selling.    Brandon Bruce is co-founder of Cirrus Insight and he's going to address how to we can get out of our own zone, where we focus exclusively on ourselves and our companies, and seek opportunities to interact with other people.    Evolving sales   The world of sales is constantly evolving. One of the challenges Brandon sees with sales right now is an unspoken push that exists. Because there are a bunch of companies at the growth stage, and a bunch of companies just starting out, there's a tremendous amount of energy in the sales industry.    There's a premium on hitting numbers. Everyone is hustling and trying to find a way to build a better mousetrap. On the negative side, sellers might be hyperfocused on closing deals so that they forget to prioritize the personal connection. Because connections take time, and sales reps get antsy, we sometimes try to speed things along.    We don't want to close a deal next month; we want to close it this month.    Brandon believes there's a happy medium to be found. We must work to focus on building sustainable relationships even while we focus on making our numbers.    Long-term success   Companies that focus too narrowly on numbers will likely struggle to achieve long-term customer success. The customers won't stay as long because the deals were one-time kinds of relationships. It's easier for customers to walk away when the customer doesn't know us well.    Brandon remembers buying a countertop, a one-time purchase, from a company that worked to develop a relationship with him. They were struggling to find exactly what he wanted, until they discovered an unused countertop in a storage area. It was exactly what he needed, and it was something a previous customer decided against using. And the company sold it to him for 50 percent off.    He calls it a great selling experience because they listened to his needs and they thought about how they could best help him. And even when they had a chance to make more money off the deal, they sold it to him at a great price.    Even though he won't be in the market for a countertop anytime soon, they created an evangelist in him. If anyone should ask where to buy a countertop, he'll absolutely recommend that company.    They closed a deal, they moved product, and they build a sustainable relationship.    Evangelizing   We should probably remind ourselves to focus on doing the right thing, and sometimes allowing ourselves to take the easy option. We're tempted to feel like we should push a little harder, but sometimes we can take the easy deal that leaves the customer feeling satisfied.    Every now and then, take the deal that the customer can say yes to immediately. You might leave a little on the table, but everyone feels good moving forward. #Evangelizers   Your customer will become an evangelist for your company. You might have missed a chance to get a little more from them, but because you gave them more, you'll have the opportunity to earn more from them.    Building customer relationships benefits your long-run philosophy.    Raving fan   I joined an organization that gave its sellers to the book, Raving Fans, as part of its onboarding process. It helped us understand the value of customers who bought our solution and then stayed with us to upgrade and buy more later.    It's valuable to have a customer who likes your product and who will promote you on social media and leave you reviews. A raving fan might take you to their next three jobs, or mention you on their podcast.    It has less to do with building a predictable sales machine and more to do with building a fan base who is passionate and who might do unpredictable things.    Reaching out to prospects   It's getting harder and harder to reach prospects, and sellers use a variety of tactics to do it.    Ecommerce has gotten huge, and statistics show that buyers have done a tremendous amount of research before they engage in the sales process. Despite that, there's still room for a lot of outreach and prospecting. But how can we bridge that gap if we have buyers who are already doing a lot of the work themselves?   Begin by making it really easy for your customers to have a conversation. Brandon's company puts its calendars on the website so that customers who want to schedule time with them can immediately see what is available. Once they schedule a time, it will automatically appear on the company's calendar. It's buyer-driven versus seller-driven.   Prospects come to them more often now asking for a demo. Meeting them part-way helps to bridge that gap.    Another option they use is the ability to place bulky slides in a web portal and then provide a link to it instead of putting the slide in an email. It's useful because they can click on it and view it online. They don't have to worry about malware or about a bulky attachment loading too slowly.    They also get real-time analytics about their slide deck: they know which slide people are most interested in, and where they abandon the slides. The team can then offer to follow up with a demo.   Meeting halfway   Brandon calls the process meeting halfway, which he said is how the best sales always happen. It's a buyer saying, “I'm ready to buy,” and a seller saying, “We're pretty interested in selling to you.” It creates a partnership where everyone brings something to the table.    Persuade by sharing insights. Many people have a distaste for sales because they perceive it as a seller trying to trick a buyer in buying something he doesn't need. But that's not selling. That's trickery.    Sales is an art and not a science. It can't be reduced to an algorithm, at least not yet, because it involves nuanced decisions as part of the relationship. In his own case, the company was looking to make a purchase, but the VP of marketing was skittish because the company wasn't pushing for the sale at all. It left her with the sense that they don't really want their business.    The art results from trying to find the right amount of positive pressure to get the deal closed. It's figuring out what your buyer needs and wants to hear, telling them, and moving the conversation forward.    Email outreach   Email outreach is difficult and it has gotten harder over the lifetime of Brandon's company. As with any trend in technology, as more and more people come on board with automation, there's simply more volume. Those on the receiving end are overwhelmed by it, and it's hard to overcome the spam filters. It's difficult to break through.    Short emails work the best; perhaps two or three lines long with single sentence paragraphs. It must be super easy to read at a glance because people don't tend to read deep content.    Clearly state what you do and provide a link or two. Make it very easy for the user to click and say, “I want to learn more.” They're much simpler than the newsletter-type emails that are rich in image and video. Google and other filters often knock those out. It's a simple, text-based email with an intriguing subject.    Recognize that vanity metrics might get you a 100-percent open rate, but they don't drive conversations, and conversations drive sales.    Consider asking other people in your industry for feedback. Brandon likes to send ideas to other tech founders and ask if his ideas seem insane or totally off-base. Because it's a very giving community, people often write back to offer thoughts and ideas.    Keep the excitement   Sales will always be a hustle. It won't ever be easy. It's a nice idea to think that you can create some kind of machine that will keep the money rolling in, but it isn't realistic. We must keep putting our heads down, hustling, and meeting the customers halfway. Make deals that are easy to say yes to and that leave your customers feeling confident about the decision.    Let your audience know that doing business with you is easy.    “How to Handle Major Challenges When Selling” episode resources   If you'd like to connect with Brandon, you can email him at brandon@cirrusinsight.com, or you can find him on LinkedIn.    Connect with me at donald@thesalesevangelist.com.   Try the first module of the TSE Certified Sales Training Program for free.   This episode is brought to you by the TSE Certified Sales Training Program. I developed this training course because I struggled early on as a seller. Once I had the chance to go through my own training, I noticed a hockey-stick improvement in my performance.   TSE Certified Sales Training Program can help you out of your slump. If you gave a lot of great presentations and did a lot of hard work, only to watch your prospects choose to work with your competitors, we can help you fix that.    Tools for sellers   This episode is also brought to you in part by mailtag.io, a Chrome browser extension for Gmail that allows you to track and schedule your emails. It's super easy, it's helpful, and I recommend that you try it out. You'll receive real-time alerts anyone opens an email or clicks a link.   Mailtag.io allows you to see around the corners. You can see when people open your email, or when they click on the link you sent. Mailtag.io will give you half-off your subscription for life when you use the Promo Code: Donald at check out.   I hope you enjoyed the show today as much as I did. If so, please consider leaving us a rating on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Stitcher, or wherever you consume this content and share it with someone else who might benefit from our message. It helps others find our message and improves our visibility.   If you haven't already done so, subscribe to the podcast so you won't miss a single episode. Share it with your friends who would benefit from learning more. Audio provided by Free SFX and Bensound.

I got Brandon Bruce and Chris Shine from the band Scared of the Dark on the couch for an amazing interview! We talk Music, Movies, Influences, and anecdotes to life as rockers! Check them out on Facebook and Instagram! Don't forget to share and subscribe! Hit us up on the Tweeter @TonyTubesZerr on Twitter @DakotaPodcast on Twitter Hit us up on Email DakotaPodcasting@gmail.com And don't forget to check out this podcast on the Anchor Podcast app https://anchor.fm/the-dakota-podcasting-experience as well as Google Podcasts - https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy85YzMwOTIwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Apple Podcasts - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dakota-podcasting-experience/id1456386660?mt=2&uo=4 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/01Kr3OnkcOW6RrTHQLhs2M Breaker - https://www.breaker.audio/the-dakota-podcasting-experience Pocket Casts - https://pca.st/7wSM Radio Public - https://radiopublic.com/the-dakota-podcasting-experience-Wlk3VL If you want to see more content by myself Check out my other channels on Youtube Tube Review - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc15n9oRS4_8ZMVsrUDtE3g Silver Screen Showdown - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4mqwayqEWlQk1H3H9B_bqA --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tubesworld/message

Co Founder of Cirrus Insight https://www.cirrusinsight.com/brandonAs an entrepreneur, you get to choose who you work with.  Cirrus Insight helps you manage sales, without leaving your inbox.As a company, be available to your clients.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, on today’s show we have Brandon Bruce, co-founder of Cirrus Insight which helps you track emails, book meetings, and set follow-ups – basically, it helps you close more deals. Today we’ll learn how a smart idea for a Chrome extension led to a $10 million run rate, how passing out simple postcards at conferences got 1,000 people to join their pilot program (which turned into 500 paying customers), and what they did to reduce churn rates. Click here for show notes and transcript. Leave some feedback: What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here. Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes. Get the non-iTunes RSS feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @ericosiu

In this episode, I play the role of a hard nosed attorney who uses positional bargaining to try to bully Brandon into a bad contract. Brandon does a great job of pushing back respectfully and generating creative solutions.  This sparring session complements our previous episode with Brandon Bruce, the Co-Founder and COO of Cirrus Insight. Important Links: Click here to learn more about the Negotiation Workshop.   Click here to buy the book. Click here to download the ultimate negotiation guide.   Click here to learn more about Cirrus Insight.   Keywords: negotiation, negotiate, persuasion, influence, leadership, psychology, sales, compassionate curiosity, mindful, mindfulness, emotions, self awareness, emotional intelligence, career, interviews, informational interviews, job search, job readiness, networking, discounts, conflict, difficult people, psychology, emotion, emotions, argue, argument, debate, negotiation, negotiate, influence, persuasion, leadership, parenting, psychology, sociology, social dynamics, entrepreneurship, small business, salary, sales, law, lawyer, law school, mba, human resources, HR, talent management, talent development, nonprofit management, supply chain, procurement, sales, buyers, buying, procure, business negotiation, Chris Voss, Never split the difference, getting to yes, collaboration, negotiation genius, art of the deal, real estate negotiation

In this episode, I play the role of a hard nosed attorney who uses positional bargaining to try to bully Brandon into a bad contract. Brandon does a great job of pushing back respectfully and generating creative solutions. This sparring session complements our previous episode with Brandon Bruce, the Co-Founder and COO of Cirrus Insight. Important Links: Click here to learn more about the Negotiation Workshop. Click here to buy the book. Click here to download the ultimate negotiation guide. Click here to learn more about Cirrus Insight. Keywords: negotiation, negotiate, persuasion, influence, leadership, psychology, sales, compassionate curiosity, mindful, mindfulness, emotions, self awareness, emotional intelligence, career, interviews, informational interviews, job search, job readiness, networking, discounts, conflict, difficult people, psychology, emotion, emotions, argue, argument, debate, negotiation, negotiate, influence, persuasion, leadership, parenting, psychology, sociology, social dynamics, entrepreneurship, small business, salary, sales, law, lawyer, law school, mba, human resources, HR, talent management, talent development, nonprofit management, supply chain, procurement, sales, buyers, buying, procure, business negotiation, Chris Voss, Never split the difference, getting to yes, collaboration, negotiation genius, art of the deal, real estate negotiation

In this episode, Brandon Bruce, the Co-Founder and COO of Cirrus Insight, shares how to handle the sales side of negotiation. Important Links: Click here to learn more about the Negotiation Workshop.   Click here to buy the book. Click here to download the ultimate negotiation guide.   Click here to learn more about Cirrus Insight.   Keywords: negotiation, negotiate, persuasion, influence, leadership, psychology, sales, compassionate curiosity, mindful, mindfulness, emotions, self awareness, emotional intelligence, career, interviews, informational interviews, job search, job readiness, networking, discounts, conflict, difficult people, psychology, emotion, emotions, argue, argument, debate, negotiation, negotiate, influence, persuasion, leadership, parenting, psychology, sociology, social dynamics, entrepreneurship, small business, salary, sales, law, lawyer, law school, mba, human resources, HR, talent management, talent development, nonprofit management, supply chain, procurement, sales, buyers, buying, procure, business negotiation, Chris Voss, Never split the difference, getting to yes, collaboration, negotiation genius, art of the deal, real estate negotiation

In this episode, Brandon Bruce, the Co-Founder and COO of Cirrus Insight, shares how to handle the sales side of negotiation. Important Links: Click here to learn more about the Negotiation Workshop. Click here to buy the book. Click here to download the ultimate negotiation guide. Click here to learn more about Cirrus Insight. Keywords: negotiation, negotiate, persuasion, influence, leadership, psychology, sales, compassionate curiosity, mindful, mindfulness, emotions, self awareness, emotional intelligence, career, interviews, informational interviews, job search, job readiness, networking, discounts, conflict, difficult people, psychology, emotion, emotions, argue, argument, debate, negotiation, negotiate, influence, persuasion, leadership, parenting, psychology, sociology, social dynamics, entrepreneurship, small business, salary, sales, law, lawyer, law school, mba, human resources, HR, talent management, talent development, nonprofit management, supply chain, procurement, sales, buyers, buying, procure, business negotiation, Chris Voss, Never split the difference, getting to yes, collaboration, negotiation genius, art of the deal, real estate negotiation

How do you build a successful startup and not get caught in the “growth at all costs” mindset? Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at school and an outhouse for their bathroom. These humble beginnings set the stage for Brandon’s curiosity to thrive as he was afforded the freedom to learn at his own pace. Demonstrating community involvement and support of his interests, Brandon’s parents taught him through example that you can take care of business and take care of your family and community at the same time. Brandon is now co-founder of Cirrus Insight which has grown to $12 million in revenue and is listed as #41 on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies. Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, Cirrus Insight also organized and sponsored the largest computer coding lesson in the world, with nearly 10,000 students and over 50 schools participating, landing them in the Guinness Book Of World Records. In today’s conversation, Brandon shares his lessons from bootstrapping a startup company, growing a team, and pivoting when their main marketing channel was eliminated. Building solid customer relationships has been essential for their tech startup, and Brandon describes how they were able to avoid common pitfalls to growth by engaging their customers every step of the way. We round out this interview with Brandon sharing a few examples of the ways in which he has been able support his local community, including simple, easy projects anyone can do, as well as leveraging Cirrus Insight’s expertise by leading the largest computer coding lesson in the world. His example proves that making an impact doesn’t require you to register a NPO or corporate entity – it simply requires you to be open to the needs of your community and be willing to take action. Key Takeaways Before you build a product, find out from potential customers if they would use it and how much would they pay to use it. Back your marketing and distribution channels with relationships. A lot of life is just showing up. Many entrepreneurs never get their idea off the ground because they get stuck in the planning phase.   Do not over-plan – complete a project and then if it’s successful and you want to continue, then consider writing a business plan, setting up an entity, and so forth. It’s underrated how much can be created with a project. No permission is needed to make a difference in your community. Just do it. Connect With Brandon Bruce https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce Learn More about Cirrus Insight https://www.cirrusinsight.com            

Did you know that sometimes the fastest way to get sales is to slow down? I had a great episode with Brandon Bruce, co-founder and CEO of Cirrus Insight, a customer relationship management application, who shows you how to achieve sales success with the “Art of the Slow Sale.” In our far-ranging discussion, he outlined some of his thoughts about how slowing down your sales process actually speeds up your closing rates.

Did you know that sometimes the fastest way to get sales is to slow down? I had a great episode with Brandon Bruce, co-founder and CEO of Cirrus Insight, a customer relationship management application, who shows you how to achieve sales success with the “Art of the Slow Sale.” In our far-ranging discussion, he outlined some of his thoughts about how slowing down your sales process actually speeds up your closing rates.

Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school with no running water. He went from these humble beginnings to now cofounding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in annual revenue, 65 employees, and #41 on the Inc. 500 list. Cirrus Insight is the highest rated platform of all-time for perfectly connecting Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Since launching in 2011, it’s been a roller coaster of success and setbacks, and Brandon’s philosophy for operating Cirrus is similar to his love of competing in 500+ mile ultra-endurance races - you aren’t going to win at the start or in a sprint at the end. Success is a war of consistency and persistence, and he has always enjoyed that. During our interview we discuss: - We discuss how they funded the company - Brandon drops a tip on how to get ranked on Inc. 5000 fastest growing company list that most people don't know. - He shares how they got their early startup customers. - Then Brandon shares what customer acquisition strategies that are working for them today. - We talk about one of the best ways Brandon and his team have been able to differentiate themselves from the competition. - Brandon shares how they combat a Saas companies biggest enemy...customer churn. - Brandon shares what he would do differently to grow faster if he could start all over again. - He shares his favorite growth software/tool. - Brandon shares and recommends one of his favorite books. Brandon's websites: www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce brandon@cirrusinisight.com   Connect with Dennis Brown AskDennisBrown.com LinkedIn Twitter

Brandon Bruce of King Thrust Entertainment picks songs by Denman, Lillick, Slider, and the Dead Deads. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Brandon Bruce of King Thrust Entertainment picks songs by Denman, Lillick, Slider, and the Dead Deads.

Brandon Bruce is the Cofounder and COO of Cirrus Insight, the highest rated sales platform that connects Gmail & Outlook with Salesforce. Brandon has grown Cirrus as a lightly-funded distributed company with scrappy tactics in the same industry as billion-dollar software companies and competitors with tens of millions in funding! From his sales experience at Cirrus, Brandon wrote the book The Slow Sale. In this episode, Brandon shares how salespeople can win sales with context rather than speed.   Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Time can also deliver and save deals Learning about the “Quiet Period” to close more deals How to best document your sales process Understanding when to be patient and when to move on   You can listen to this episode on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you get your favorite podcast!   About the Guest: Brandon Bruce is the Cofounder and COO of Cirrus Insight, the highest rated sales platform that connects Gmail & Outlook with Salesforce. Since launching in 2011, it's been a roller coaster of success and setbacks, and Brandon's philosophy for operating Cirrus is similar to his love of competing in 500+ mile ultra-endurance races - you aren't going to win at the start or in a sprint at the end. Success is a war of consistency and persistence, and he has always enjoyed that. Today, Cirrus is in the middle of their biggest challenge yet - pivoting for the first time in seven years after losing their primary marketing channel as the #1app on the Salesforce AppExchange. Email: brandon@cirrusinsight.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/   Listen to more episodes of the Outside Sales Talk here and watch the video here!

Everyone wants to get better at sales, but once you've had some success, could you explain why? Could you repeat that and train others to mimic that success? Cirrus Insight cofounder Brandon Bruce has grown his sales integration software company into a $12MM business by focusing on the process and creating systems that show where growth comes from and how to replicate it. But there's a surprising benefit to this: It allows you to predict potential customers' needs, which you can use to lead them down your sales path and get them invested in your product or service before you ever make the sales pitch! We talk about that and a whole lot more of the challenges startups face early on when trying to figure out how to create a sales system for their company. For full show notes, links and images, check out this show's post at TheBuildCycle.com/Podcast Be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Overcast FM, or wherever you listen to podcasts and leave a review and rating! And let me know who you'd like to hear interviewed...just message me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

079 | Brandon Bruce Shares His 24-Hour Whiplash of Disappointment Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school using outhouses as their bathroom. He went from these humble beginnings to now co-founding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in revenue and was ranked #41 on the Inc. 500 list (after a six-year rollercoaster of success and setbacks). When was the last time that you allowed the stress of your expectations dictate the decisions you make in your business? If you’re like a lot of entrepreneurs, you probably said that you do this a lot. Trust me, I understand, but by doing this you are holding yourself back from so many incredible opportunities. This week’s guest, Brandon Bruce, co-founder of Cirrus Insights shares how the gap between your expectations and what actually happened can be so frustrating. Brandon and his business partner, Ryan, had been approached by an investor whose money would help take their business to the next level. Brandon and Ryan began spending the money as soon as a VERBAL agreement had been agreed upon. However, within 24-hours, that YES changed to a big NO! Despite the negative effect this had on their business, Brandon and Ryan were able to look at the reality of the situation and keep hustling, until the next investor came along. Are you tired of living in the gap between the expectations and reality, then this episode of Success Unfiltered is a MUST LISTEN! Enjoy, and thank you for listening and tuning into Success Unfiltered! To share your thoughts: Email The Pitch Queen @ hello@thepitchqueen.com Ask a question over at www.ThePitchQueen.com Share Success Unfiltered on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, & LinkedIn To help the show out: Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe to the show on iTunes. Special thanks goes out to Brandon Bruce for taking the time to chat with Michelle. Be sure to join us next week for our next new episode! P.S. Objections In Sales are NOT Rejections. If your prospect is hesitant, it doesn’t mean the deal is off. How do you handle objections and turn them into sales? Click HERE and learn 5 ways to turn hesitant prospects into happy clients! Here are a few key secrets we talked about in this episode: Michelle introduces Brandon Bruce. Brandon shares a brief synopsis of who he is and what he does. Early in his business, Brandon and his partner had verbally signed a deal for $500K, which they lost almost overnight. He shares the full story in this episode! This was a frustrating time for Brandon, because they were in startup mode and wanted to get things moving, but what it required was Brandon’s patience. One thing that has made the the highs and lows easier for Brandon and his business partner, is having each other to lean on. They keep each other balanced. Brandon advises that in order to succeed in business, you need to get used to getting pummeled in the face with NO’s, because once you do, you’ll be cruising down the beach, having a great time. A big way that Brandon does to keep himself from falling into major funks is exercising. He enjoys long, rhythmic bike rides. The biggest NO’s that Brandon and Ryan (his co-founder) have to deal with are losing the talented people they hire to work with them. These individuals go on to start their own companies, which leaves Brandon searching for the next best replacement. There was one particular employee that Brandon and Ryan lost, that was very intelligent and talented, and could do the work of 10 people. When they lost him, it left a large void to fill. The most accomplished NO that Brandon experienced happened when he and Ryan were trying to get banks, healthcare or anything else that deals with personal information, to start using their product. Many of those companies were concerned with whether they had enough security. Brandon shares a story of going through this with a bank that he and Ryan had been excited to work with. Tune in to hear it! Brandon’s motto is “The answer to any customer question is always YES.” He explains why in this episode! A few years back Brandon and Ryan acquired a product that would act as a tool to connect Google Drive and Salesforce, but it ended up causing them to lose money. Unfortunately, they had to let their customers know that they would NO longer be making updates to the app, but that it would be free. Listen for the full story! Brandon shares what he would tell his younger self. Connect with Brandon Bruce: Brandon’s Website LinkedIn Cirrus Insight Twitter Cirrus Insight Instagram Cirrus Insight Facebook P.S. Objections In Sales are NOT Rejections. If your prospect is hesitant, it doesn’t mean the deal is off. How do you handle objections and turn them into sales? Click HERE and learn 5 ways to turn hesitant prospects into happy clients! Music produced by Deejay-O  www.iamdeejayo.com  

Brandon Bruce co-founded Cirrus Insight, an all-in-one productivity sales platform that connects Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Find out how they grew to having over 150,000 paying users across 5,000 companies and gained up to $12.8M in revenue. Visit https://www.leadquizzes.com/podcast for the complete show notes of every podcast episode. Topics Discussed in this Episode: [01:36] How they came up with the idea for Cirrus Insight [04:56] How Brandon knew that his friend was going to be a good business partner [07:28] How they managed the transition period before they launched their business and getting their first customers [10:53] How they got feedback from beta users [14:15] How they got people to start as free users to becoming their first customers [19:21] How they decided to launch their product and move forward with their business [22:40] What the early months looked like for Cirrus Insight in terms of revenue [24:47] How their first hires helped them grow the business [25:53] How they developed the traffic and their email list and put their sales model together [32:35] How their pricing has evolved from the time they first launched [35:52] How they compensate their sales people for their demos [39:09] How they prioritized feedback and what to build on the development side and the operations side [44:48] What Brandon did that had the biggest impact on his growth [46:23] What they look for in the people that they hire   Key Takeaways: There’s an emotionally stabilizing effect of having another person you can share the roller coaster of building a business with. The biggest thing that causes early stage companies to fail is that the founders break up. It is a threat to building a company. It’s helpful to have smart people on deck to help with the million things that have to get done. Community involvement whether online or in person is key to growing a business. The opportunities to hire software developers primarily comes through referrals.   Action Steps: If you’re in the software or app business, find the marketplace online where people are likely to search and/or gather for product offerings like yours. Be active in the Salesforce community and be active in all the boards, trying to answer as many questions are possible. Build a customer success team just as you would build a sales team.   Brandon said: “We’ve always known that there’s a risk in the market that a very large competitor could come in and stomp on everybody. So you’re kind of always aware of that and yet you get very used to living with that risk.” “Dig in earlier to something like this, building something that looks like a snowball and pushing it downhill… Get started early and often.”   More from Brandon Bruce and Cirrus Insight: Cirrus Insight’s Website Brandon’s Email Brandon’s LinkedIn   Resources mentioned in this episode: The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses   Sponsor link 14-day Free Trial to LeadQuizzes   Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to this podcast! And don’t forget to leave me a rating and a review on iTunes!

Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school with no running water. He went from these humble beginnings to now co-founding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in annual revenue, 65 employees, and #41 on the Inc. 500 list. Cirrus Insight is the highest rated sales platform of all-time for perfectly connecting Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Since launching in 2011, it’s been a roller coaster of success and setbacks, and Brandon’s philosophy for operating Cirrus is similar to his love of competing in 500+ mile ultra-endurance races - you aren’t going to win at the start or in a sprint at the end. Success is a war of consistency and persistence, and he has always enjoyed that. Brandon has grown Cirrus as a lightly-funded distributed company via scrappy tactics in the same industry as billion-dollar software companies and competitors with tens of millions in funding. Today, Cirrus is in the middle of their biggest challenge yet - pivoting for the first time in seven years after losing their primary marketing channel as the #1 app on the Salesforce AppExchange. Podcast Highlights Hire employees who want to be founders. They bring passion to the job Crowdsource new ideas from your clients that way become more relevant  Hire generalists because they can wear many hats Connect With Brandon LinkedIn Website

What would you do if your business suddenly lost its largest distribution platform? Brandon Bruce, COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insight, was thrown a curve when his company’s application was removed from the SalesForce App Exchange, its largest distribution outlet. While this blow might signal the end of most application’s lifecycle, Cirrus Insight’s branding and unique lead generation capabilities kept the app alive and well. What is CRM? Salesforce’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform allows salespeople to track their correspondence with clients, providing them with valuable data about leads, trends and relationship advancement. CRM systems typically require a significant amount of manual data entry, especially in regard to email correspondence. Brandon explains how this additional work required by most CRMs hurts user adoption, ultimately leading to a CRM’s failure. Software Architect and Co-founder Ryan Huff saw an opportunity to develop a Salesforce plugin that automatically maintains record of these communications, while connecting with email and mobile devices without leaving Salesforce. Cirrus Insight Prior to starting Cirrus Path, the parent company of Cirrus Insight, with Ryan Huff, Brandon worked in the advancement department at Maryville College in Tennessee. When Ryan approached Brandon with the idea of Cirrus Insight, Brandon’s background in both sales and CRM systems immediately told him they were onto something. Cirrus Insight lives inside of a browser plugin that automatically transmits data from Google Suite and Office 365’s calendar to the Salesforce ecosystem. Cirrus Insight launched on the Salesforce App Exchange in 2011 with great success, becoming the #1 application ranking on the app exchange for five months in 2012. The massive growth and success of the application even caught the attention of Inc. Magazine, placing them on the Inc. 5000 List three years running, peaking at #41 in 2016. Leaving the App Exchange Despite their high rankings, large userbase and stellar reviews, Cirrus Insight was removed from the Salesforce App Exchange without warning. Brandon shares his thoughts on how companies launching within somebody else’s sandbox should anticipate and prepare for critical situations like this, and how despite losing Cirrus Insights’ biggest distribution platform, it also opened the door to exciting, new opportunities with customers Supporters of Hope One of the greatest satisfactions for Brandon is finding good people with great ideas. Cirrus Path is always looking for the next opportunity, nurturing entrepreneurs primarily in the tech industry, showing them the company’s playbook for success and helping them launch their own businesses. In the tech world where there always seems to be “an app for that” to make life easier, Brandon cautions that this is not always true. Sometimes there’s no replacement for hard work, so you just have to hunker down and do the work, even if it’s manually. To those interested in seeing for themselves what Cirrus Path has to offer, Brandon invites you to be a guest at his weekly company lunch on Fridays if you are in Knoxville, Tenn. Connect with Brandon Bruce LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce Email: brandon@cirrusinsight.com Website: https://www.cirrusinsight.com/ 

Segment 1: Mike Milan is Finagraph's Vice President, Customer Success with over 20 years of sales and entrepreneurship experience. Segment 2: Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school with no running water. He went from these humble beginnings to now cofounding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in annual revenue, 65 employees, and #41 on the Inc. 500 list.Segment 3: Dr. Richard Nongard is the author of Viral Leadership: Seize the Power of Now to Create Lasting Transformation in Business. In addition to being a licensed psychotherapist, he has owned numerous businesses including restaurants and educational service providers.Segment 4: Natalie Michaelis a partner with Waterfront Partners, a boutique firm that specializes in succession management and executive coaching for business owners and c-suite leaders. She is the co-author of the book Your CEO Succession Playbook: How to Pass the Torch so Everyone Wins.Segment 5: Barry Moltz shares how to get your business unstuck.Sponsored by Nextiva and Finagraph

Welcome to another episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, in today’s episode we have Brandon Bruce the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Cirrus Insight. Since founding the company in 2011, Cirrus Insight has been listed in the Inc 5000 ranking for three years in a row… A list of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Cirrus Insight is 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. It allows you to Track emails, schedule meetings, set follow-ups and more, right from your inbox... In my conversation with Brandon, we covered a lot of the early days at Cirrus Insight. We focused on how Brandon and his Co-Founder, Ryan Huff, built the company from 0 to +250,000 users… Some of the topics that we covered are: Getting their first users. Converting them into paying customers. Pricing in the early days Vs Pricing now. Making their first sales hire. The bottom up sales strategy. Creating your product roadmap based on feedback. Using partners to sell your product. Brandon grew up in Los Olivos, a small California town of 800 people and had only one classmate in grade school. He loves endurance sports and raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 2002 as part of the Furnace Creek 508 (https://www.the508.net/). He finished in 35 hours and 7 minutes. He also enjoys hiking, camping, and building with Legos. Brandon lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Tricia, and their two children, Sonoma and Carson. Brandon’s advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders: “Stay curious.” & “Have the ability to make decisions.” Where to find Brandon on the Interwebs: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/ Cirrus Insight - https://www.cirrusinsight.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)

There's arguably no tougher mindset than that of the small business entrepreneur. What does it take to breakthrough and grow a business from the ground up? We're wrapping up our mindset month interviews with Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-Founder of Cirrus Insights, an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. Brandon grew up in a small California town of 800 people and had only one classmate in grade school. Six years ago, he co-founded Cirrus Insight and has helped grow the company to $12m in annual revenue, 58 employees, and #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies. He's here today with massive insights into what it takes to start and grow a startup, the pitfalls to avoid and the mindset you must have. On today's podcast 3:30 - "sales is hard enough as it is without adding a lot of roadblocks" 6:46 - Cirrus begins out of Brandon's struggles 11:20 - Keeping your company simple in a post-startup phase 14:11 - Do people truly want the product that your startup wants to sell? 18:00 - The scarcity mindset and focusing on what's important as a startup 26:00 - Saying "no" sets up a brick wall for the customer 29:42 - What's next for sales development and Cirrus 37:00 - Brandon's "why" Have you heard about our Small Business Breakthrough program? If you own or want to own a small business but are struggling in certain areas, we want to help you. Email breakthrough@thewhyandthebuy.com for more information. Sign up for our book club! Don't forget to subscribe rate and review our podcast. It only takes a second and helps us make more podcasts for you. Want more from Jeff and Christie? We have a newsletter!

This episode's featured guest is Brandon Bruce. He is the Co-Founder and COO of Cirrus Insight, one of the Inc 500's fastest-growing companies in 2016. Cirrus Insight developed a powerful self-titled sales productivity plugin that integrates Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. It's used by individuals and companies all over the world, including the Girl Scouts, […] The post Let’s Talk Sales! Interview with Brandon Bruce – Episode 79 appeared first on Criteria For Success.

Brandon Bruce is COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insight. Over the last six years, he has helped grow the company to $12m in annual revenue and #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies. Cirrus Insight is a plugin for Gmail and Outlook that’s an all-in-one sales productivity platform.   You can learn more about Brandon and Cirrus Insight here: Website: www.cirrusinsight.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce Email: brandon@cirrusinsight.com   Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Website: http://jondwoskin.com/ Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Thejondwoskinexperience/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com  

Brandon Bruce co-founded and grew Cirrus Insight to $12 million in revenue and #41 on the Inc. 500 list (after a six-year rollercoaster of sales success and setbacks). Today, we're talking about how to find the unique sales strategy for your business, and how to abandon what doesn't work. In this episode, we also talk about: How sales prospecting has changed in past three or five years The old sales prospecting tactics that don't work anymore Specific sales strategies to help you stand out from the pack How to develop a culture that keeps learning This episode is brought to you by: Katallyze.io Whenever it makes sense, Katallyze can help you get quality b2b leads and appointments to help grow your sales. Best way to start is to book a strategy session with our team. Check out more about Katallyze services here. AGM AGM is a B2B agency that helps you scale your business using LinkedIn. They have LinkedIn training, LinkedIn lead generation, LinkedIn recruiting and LinkedIn advertising services.  The company has been featured on the BBC, Entrepreneur and Huffington Post.  Right now, AGM is offering all of our listeners a Free LinkedIn Audit. Just go to abrahamglobal.com to reserve your session. 

What’s In This Episode: How do you change things up with your business? Jill's revamping her website. Brad recently changed pricing. Change can be good, but sometimes when you don't think things through all the way, you can be surprised at the details that you miss. Jill has a highly collaborative relationship with her team. Brad pretendsthat he does - he's collaborative-ish - but what works in some areas might not work in others. Since he hasn't asked his employees how they feel about certain changes, he doesn't know what their feedback is. But he feels like because his tactics are working, people are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  "Sometimes you've got to break what's working really well in order to turn it into something new." - Brad Brandon Bruce, former rower, and cyclist across 508 miles of Death Valley, now owns a business called Cirrus Insight, which sells sales software to salespeople. Up to this point, they've focused on inside sales but they want to branch out to have more of a field presence in the bigger cities and get more face-to-face time with customers and prospects. So how does he build up a sales force? Brad suggests hiring more inside sales with the expectation that they'll become outside sales. Jill says to run a mini-boot camp and figure out who might be best on the outside and test in multiple cities to figure out what's actually working. "Leading only one way never helps anybody." - Jill How do you get your team on board with new ways of doing things? Do you listen to their feedback?

Subscribe to Unleash Success for weekly strategies for Success! Enter your email at https://www.unleashsuccess.com Brandon grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate. He went from these humble beginnings to now Cofounding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in revenue and #41 on the Inc. 500 list after a six-year rollercoaster of success and setbacks. Cirrus Insight Powers up your inbox connecting gmail and outlook to SalesForce. Brandon also loves competing in 500+ mile ultra-endurance races, and he had a realization: business and endurance racing aren't about quick wins. You aren't going to win at the start or in a sprint at the end. Success in business is a war of consistency and persistence. In this episode we breakdown:  How to bootstrap a company without millions in funding. How to get your first 1,00o customers How to gain customers fast When to hire your first employee How business is similar to endurance racing! To try our the Cirrus App, go to: https://www.cirrusinsight.com To connect with Brandon Bruce! https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/ Subscribe to Unleash Success for weekly strategies for Success! Enter your email at https://www.unleashsuccess.com Leave a Review on iTunes and Get a Free Unleash Success T-shirt! http://bit.ly/UnleashSuccessReview Just take a screenshot of your review and email it to me at corey@unleashsuccess.com ***Please note this is giveaway is only available to U.S. residents at this time.  Subscribe to the Podcast at http://www.unleashsuccess.com/podcasts http://bit.ly/UnleashSuccessYoutube Connect with Corey Corpodian! www.facebook.com/CoreyCorpodian/ www.instagram.com/coreycorpodian/  

Brandon Bruce is co-founder of Cirrus Insight, a plugin for Gmail and Outlook that integrates with Salesforce to help sales people save time. You can learn more about Brandon here: https://www.cirrusinsight.com This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at http://authorsunite.com/. Thank you for listening to The Business Blast Podcast! Tyler --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/authorsunite/support

On this edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast, co-host Collin Stewart welcomes Brandon Bruce, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight. Like all law school grads, Brandon decided to co-found a rapidly growing tech company. Since starting Cirrus Insight more than 7 years ago, Brandon has helped grow the company to more than 70 people...and, of course, improve the efficiency of sales teams around the world using their software. Throughout the pod, Collin and Brandon talk about all of the different ways C-level executives can support their sales teams. Highlights include: Brandon's relationship with his sales team (15:06), Brandon's support methods (20:03), navigating the procurement process (38:53), advice to other sales teams (42:57), and cold call Collin (42:57).

On this edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast, co-host Collin Stewart welcomes Brandon Bruce, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight. Like all law school grads, Brandon decided to co-found a rapidly growing tech company. Since starting Cirrus Insight more than 7 years ago, Brandon has helped grow the company to more than 70 people...and, of course, improve the efficiency of sales teams around the world using their software. Throughout the pod, Collin and Brandon talk about all of the different ways C-level executives can support their sales teams. Highlights include: Brandon's relationship with his sales team (15:06), Brandon's support methods (20:03), navigating the procurement process (38:53), advice to other sales teams (42:57), and cold call Collin (42:57).

Making Sales in Startups with Sean Higgins #225 Sean Higgins is a Residence at Techstars and founder of ilos where he led sales from 0-1Million+ in annual recurring revenue. Sean specializes in helping new companies use outbound sales tactics. The goal is to validate product-market fit and get early traction in the selling process. In this episode we talk about making sales in startups.  Get those first 10 customers today. Solve a Problem Ideas are cheap so what’s really needed is problem solving. Successful startups keep this in mind. Sean believes entrepreneurs should address the hardest problem in the room and keep at it.  Too often startups mistakenly focus on hyper viral growth. Most business don’t work that way. Better to find a group of customers that you can serve and grow gradually. Yes you need to have a long term vision. But focus on what makes your business better NOW.  There are two types of businesses: Traction Based Company – have $10K month revenue Team Based Company – pre revenue raising dependent on a quality proven team Success is more likely if you validate a business with recurring revenue. VC fund companies who are proven winners. 0-10 customers is where you coalesce your ideas: the value proposition, the pitch, biggest pain points and how you fit in that situation. Big 3 Questions Sean has three questions sellers should ask and answer: Why anything? Explain why your category matters and why prospects should consider a new solution. Why us? – Explain why people should pick your company. Every founder has an origin story. The story tells why they built the business  and how they differentiate. Tell stories. Why now? – This is the most difficult challenge for startups. Motivate prospects to buy now by showing how you address a real problem instantly. When To Pivot The way to know when it’s time to pivot is to have as many conversations as possible. If there is no interest, you’re chasing failure. Pivot! A pipeline without closed sales is not for real. There are two tiers of sales: 0-10 it’s all about discovery 10-100 – it’s about sales automation, social selling, process and tools. Connect with as many prospects as you can and ask: why anything, why us, and why now. If people don’t get what you’re saying, you’re not explaining your category, your company, or your value. Sales Automation Tactic:  FunnelAI social media data scraper for finding leads. It creates the leads when companies share they are being challenged and under stress. Warning: when content marketing, give 5 contents of value before asking for a sale. How to Find Sean Higgins Twitter- https://twitter.com/higg1921 Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanm-higgins/ Here’s the link to the course: https://www.udemy.com/draft/1736562/?couponCode=SALESBABBLE The promo code: SALESBABBLE Entrepreneurial Mindset Here are other past episodes digging deeper into startup sales. The Transparency Sale Part 2 with Todd Caponi #222 The Key to Authentic Selling with Jeff Davis #207 What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 Three Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus #201 How to Pitch Shark Tank with Michelle Weinstein #184 How to be a Sales Sherpa with the Hyperconnected David Fisher Startup Story Where Software Goes to Seed with Charlie Wiltgen #179 Sales Cycling and Startups with Jon Woodroof #145 Selling from the H.A.R.T. with Mega Cindy Vranken #143 Lose Your Ego Gain The World with Todd Lemense #139 The post Making Sales in Startups with Sean Higgins #225 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

Brandon Bruce with Cirrus Insight has faced down situations that would test any entrepreneur. Going from getting his JD to starting a highly successful Sales tech company has taught him that determination, grit and keeping up a good attitude will get you through even the toughest times. As we in the Sales Development community face down difficult situations every day, it’s great to know it can lead to success eventually if you set a clear goal and stick to it. Join us this week on The Sales Development Podcast to learn from a master! Still haven’t picked up your Sales Development Conference Tickets yet? Early Bird SOLD OUT but slide in to the comments for ultra exclusive fnf hook-up. This Conference will sell out. https://tenbound.com/conference #salesdev18#SDR #salesdevelopmentrep #salesdevelopment #salesdev18 #prospecting #coldcalling #salesloft #outreach #sales #tenbound #salesforce #salesappointment #revenue #salesops #marketingops #salesforce #tech #salestech #marketingtech #salestraining#salesenablement #discoverorg #leadgeneration #accountbasedmarketing #abm

Brandon Bruce, Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight, joins the podcast to talk about the modern seller. How do you leverage technology and data to become a better seller? Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of today's top sellers. Cirrus Insight is a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for salespeople. It's an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. It was #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in 2016. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a 5-star review in iTunes!

Brandon Bruce, Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight, joins the podcast to talk about the modern seller. How do you leverage technology and data to become a better seller? Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of today's top sellers. Cirrus Insight is a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for salespeople. It's an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. It was #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in 2016. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a 5-star review in iTunes!

Brandon Bruce, Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight, joins the podcast to talk about the modern seller. How do you leverage technology and data to become a better seller? Learn the attitudes, behaviors, and techniques of today's top sellers. Cirrus Insight is a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for salespeople. It's an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. It was #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in 2016. The How to Succeed Podcast is a public and free podcast from Sandler Training, the worldwide leader in sales, management, and customer service training for individuals all the way up to Fortune 500 companies with over 250 locations around the globe. Find white papers, webinars, and more in our free Sandler E-Learning Library: https://www.sandler.com/sell Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a 5-star review in iTunes!

Blizt Episode: Learning a Sales Language   In this short podcast Pat will share some selling thoughts based on recent work with clients. This episode is a “blitz” with advice for new sellers or seasoned sellers of new products and services on the necessity of learning your prospects sales language. ​A common Startup Challenge is to get Beta customers to convert into paying clients. Often times sellers wonder “How do I sell? What do I say? How do I close them?” This is a case of putting the cart before the horse. Sellers fail to deeply understand their market and learn the sales language before selling. This comes with Practice. To become the teacher takes work and empathizing with customer’s needs, wants, and desires. When the time comes, sellers show a path of success. All this work is focused on prospect, in the prospect’s language. Finding a Market Brainstorm exercise 50 verticle market niches. Next align with pros and cons. Then pick 10 that look like a possible fit. Next market research companies in the niche. Ask people in those companies: What’s their challenge What’s the impediment to that challenge What’s the cost of failure – Revenue, Profit, Time, Quality, Frustration, others What’s the opportunity if the challenge is met Discovery conversations will soon convert the interview into a sales call. Dont foolishly focus on your tech, your commisions and your end of quarter quotas. Do the work and the latter concerns will vanish. Message of the Day Take time to focus on a niche. Learn their language and let them guide your solution. Be like a mouse in a maze, finding dead end after dead end. Try and try again and eventually, like the mouse, you will find the cheese. Tenacity will get you there. Entrepreneurial Mindset Listen here for past episodes regarding the entrepreneurial mindset: The Key to Authentic Selling with Jeff Davis #207 What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 Three Step Process to Narrow Your Sales Focus #201 How to Pitch Shark Tank with Michelle Weinstein #184 How to be a Sales Sherpa with the Hyperconnected David Fisher Startup Story Where Software Goes to Seed with Charlie Wiltgen #179 Sales Cycling and Startups with Jon Woodroof #145 Selling from the H.A.R.T. with Mega Cindy Vranken #143 Lose Your Ego Gain The World with Todd Lemense #139 Location Independent Business Essentials with Dan O’Donnell #138       The post Blizt Episode: Learning a Sales Language appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

CSO Insights found that of companies that push through a CRM software implementation, less than 40% of organizations achieve full scales end-user adoption. That is what Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-founder of Cirrus Insight, tells us in this episode of Helping Sells Radio. We talk about why software projects fail and how to turn them around. He details all of this in his book, "The Shelfware Problem: A Guide to CRM Adoption." Get on the email list at helpingsells.substack.com

Debunking Sales Myths with Mike Schultz #216 Selling has changed tremendously in the last 10 years. But prospecting has changed even more. Previous  research suggests that 57 percent of the purchase decision is complete before a customer calls a supplier.  This gives sellers the false impression that buyers don’t want or need to talk to them early in the buying process. They do! Mike Schultz visits Sales Babble for clarifying and debunking these sales myths with advice based on hard research. Some Common Sales Myths Rain Group is a sales research institute just completed a study on prospecting. They talked to 488 buyers, asking them what  is the process they have used for past purchases. They study found it’s a sales myth that buyers don’t want to talk to sellers, eg. 67% sale done digitally. But this should slow sellers down.  71%  of buyers said they want to talk to sellers at the early part of their research. They want context. With too many choices it becomes to difficult for buyers to choose “Its the ‘paradox of choice” according to Barry Schwartz. Myth cold calling is dead. Greater than 50%  of buyers prefer to be contacted by the telephone. It is second only to email. Of the buyers researched,  57% have had the seller reach out to them on the phone. 82% of buyers take meetings with people they don’t know but have talked to on the phone. Buyers need inspiration, start with your existing clients. What Winners Do It’s a myth that buyers don’t want to hear about capabilities and only benefits. The #1 content buyers want is features and capabilities. It’s buyers primary research on their industry. They want descriptions of the capabilities in context. They desire content customized 100% to their business  Not mass mail merges. Great Sellers WAVE Winners Mindset – The Mindset of a winner is strategic,  not tactics only. Attraction Campaign – multistep and modal approach to reach out and connect to buyers. The number of attempts to reach a prospect should be 8 (not 3). Value – Get prospects to say wow that could be worthwhile (to have a call, meet, agree to demonstration or buy). Execution -Winners do all the tactical parts. They take action to turn around objections. They exercise executive functions to stay focused in a noisy world.  They have the ability to concentrate and focus for prospecting (which is the hardest thing to do).   Cold meetings that have a value approach will turn deals into wins. When sellers focus on value, 96% said it was influential. They want to be educated and collaborative >90%.  Yet the meetings must be interesting and add value. Most sales meetings are not valuable to most buyers. If they are impressive they will buy  things. Take Action Plan To get good at prospecting you have to make it 100% of your focus.   Attack it like you’re going to make it work. Build an  attraction campaign. How To Find Mike Schultz Website: https://www.raingroup.com Mike Twitter: https://twitter.com/mike_schultz RAIN Group Twitter: https://twitter.com/rainselling RAIN Group Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RAINGroup/ Mike LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeschultz50/ RAIN Group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rain-group_2/ Mike mentioned that we was happy to share a copy of the report with the audience:  5-sales-prospecting-myths-debunked How to Prospect and Generate Leads Here are past episodes that talk about the mindset for lead generation. What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 How To Generate Leads without Sales and Marketing with John Tripolsky #191 Repeatable Success for Sales Development Reps with Brendan Barrett #188 7 LinkedIn Strategies for Generating Qualified Leads with Janis Pettit #176 Why Qualifying Prospects is Like Selling To Zebras with Jeff Koser #171 7 Healthy Phone Habits to Get First Meetings with Marylou Tyler #150 Myths on Social Selling with Mark Hunter #142 How to Power Prospect with LinkedIn Groups with Liam Austin #135 How to Sell Big Clients and Win Tremendous Deals with Melinda Chen #114 How To Be An Awesome Sales Professional with Thomas Ellis #102 The post Debunking Sales Myths with Mike Schultz #216 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

We often hear the term ‘pivot’ in business. When things aren’t working out, we figure out how to make it work in a different way, whether that be changing business models or switching businesses. However, what about the mini-pivot? This is where you add a small change that helps the business scale up. Stayed tuned to find out more.   Brandon Bruce is the co-founder and COO of Cirrus Insight, an all-in-one sales productivity platform. Since launching in 2011, Cirrus has been listed as #41 on the Inc. 500 list. Brandon has grown Cirrus as a lightly-funded distributed company via scrappy tactics in the same industry as billion-dollar software companies and competitors. Find out more about his story and how those small pivots were key to his success.   Brandon grew up in a very small town and went to a class of two. It was very self-directed learning and he was able to explore his education without being too restricted.   Brandon started his company at a perfect time. When he and his partner created a product that integrated Gmail with Salesforce, both of these platforms were growing exponentially and now he and his team work with over 5,000 different organizations.   He credits a big difference for their growth compared to others in the same space is that they got creative with the use of their bootstrapping methods to succeed. They were able to achieve a lot with a lot less and, through that, they were able to scale up more effectively.   A lot of people think pivots have to be a big shift or change but do not discount the mini-pivots at all. Brandon’s business model was simple, do you use Salesforce? Yes. Do you use Gmail? Yes. Well, then you’re our target market.   As their company grew, Brandon kept hearing from others who wanted their service but weren’t using Salesforce just yet or weren’t using Gmail. This caused Brandon and his team to do a mini-pivot to service those customers.   With 7 years of feedback, Brandon has a good idea of what his customers want and how much they’re willing to pay for it. You don’t have to do a big pivot to improve your business and to scale up. There are lots of opportunities for mini-pivots and growth within your company.   Interview Links: Cirrusinsight.com Brandon on LinkedIn   Resources: Scaling Up for Business Growth Workshops: Take the first step to mastering the Rockefeller Habits by attending one of our workshops. Scaling Up Website Gazelles Website Bill on YouTube  

For prospectors, referrals are important. When you’re a business developer, it’s helpful if you can engage clients to the point that they’re willing to refer another business to you. Today’s guest is Brandon Bruce, the COO and Co-founder of Cirrus Insight. In today’s episode, Bruce will be talking about the top of the funnel. Listen to the episode to hear what Brandon has to say about referrals and about the tips, techniques, and strategies that he’s using in his own company that may also be useful for you. Episode Highlights: Brandon’s unusual height Brandon’s company, Cirrus Insight, and what they do What Brandon has found does and doesn’t work when it comes to prospecting When is the best time to bring up the topic of referrals with a client Incentives that can encourage clients to make referrals How making a job fun can help build energy and get people excited How customer feedback can lead to great ideas for improvements How to use personalization in prospecting The small batch approach, and how new technologies have improved it Resources: Brandon Bruce Cirrus Insight brandon@cirrusinsight.com

Brandon Bruce is thriving on so many levels.  He's an endurance sports fan, cyclist, loves  hiking, camping, and building with Legos.  He's also the COO and Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight. Cirrus Insight is a plugin for Gmail and Outlook for salespeople. 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. Brandon and Lou have a fun conversation in this 'insightful' episode of Thrive LOUD.   ***** Connect with Lou:  www.loudiamond.net Subscribe to Thrive LOUD:  www.thriveloud.com/podcast  

One of the biggest challenges for salespeople and business owners in selling their products and services is losing potential clients because they try to move too fast in the sales process. The result is that the prospect feels pressured, gets nervous and doesn’t buy. Our very special guest on this episode of Sales Chalk Talk is Brandon Bruce, the author of “The Slow Sale”. What Brandon shares definitely works! He’s the co-founder of a company that has grown to $12 million in revenue and 58 employees is a relatively short space of time, and is #41 on Inc.’s list of fastest-growing companies! What you’ll hear on this show: • Whether sales is a sprint, a marathon or a combination of the two • When to stop “posturing” and get real • Finding a balance between standards and predictability, and innovation, diversity and change • And MUCH, MUCH more! Join awesome co-host, Murphy Alafoginis and me as we learn a ton from Brandon and the three of us have some fun and share some laughs too! Brandon’s website is http://cirrusinsight.com.

Takeaways Do the Boring Work: The best salespeople I’ve ever met run the same process every single time. I know how boring that sounds to most of you, but the truth is you don’t have to get fancy in sales to win. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Focus on the little things — those foundational elements that you know actually move the needle. Control the Signal vs the Noise: With the volume of email being sent by sales reps today, combined with the number of calls being logged, you have to stand out from the crowd. Think about your own life — how many emails do you delete without opening? How many calls do you screen with caller ID and wait for the voicemail transcription to see if it’s worth your time? If you sound like every other sales rep out there, why would any buyer think differently of you? Vanity Metrics are Worthless: I’ll admit when personal email open tracking first came out I was thrilled. Until I started having prospects open the message 37 times and never hit reply. You know you’re in sales to close deals, so if you’re going to track numbers, don’t track things that are meaningless. When you send an email track whether or not it got a reply. Track whether the reply led to a scheduled meeting or an opportunity. Until you get to that level, you’re really just playing a guessing game. Full Notes https://www.salestuners.com/brandon-bruce Book Recommendations Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Endless Compassion by Father Gregory Boyle Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins Sponsors Costello-What if every sales rep inherited the habits of your best rep? With Costello, they do. TreeLine-Specializing in improving top line revenue, Treeline helps you find, recruit, and hire the best salespeople.    

Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-founder at Cirrus Insight, joins me on this episode.

How you think about your business matters. And in this episode, we delve into the growth mindset you will need to succeed. Brandon Bruce, COO of Cirrus Insight (one of the fastest growing companies in America), joins the show to share his experience on growing a successful technology company. Brandon’s company has been through a... Listen to episode

Brandon Bruce is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Cirrus — an all-in-one sales productivity platform that connects Gmail and Outlook with Salesforce. Since launching the business in 2011, the company has grown to $12 million in annual revenue, 65 employees, and was ranked #41 on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies in 2016. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Focusing on your customers: the key to getting any business off the ground How starting a business is like an endurance sport rather than a sprint The importance of looking towards and planning for the future to ensure you are prepared for changes when they arise How entrepreneurs are able to pursue many different interests within their business Why reading is an important daily habit How daily exercise can help clear your mind and stimulate new ideas Focusing on the right things first: an important skill to master The importance of making decisions quickly The influential lesson of meeting with anyone, anywhere, at anytime Why the number one strategy to ensure success is sell first Ways to contact Brandon: Website: www.cirrusinsight.com Email: Brandon@cirrusight.com LinkedIn: Brandon Bruce Twitter: @cirrusinsight  

What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 Brandon Bruce grew up in a tiny California town of 800 people where he only had one classmate at a school with outhouses as their bathroom. He went from these humble beginnings to now Cofounding and growing Cirrus Insight to $12 million in revenue and #41 on the Inc. 500 list (after a six-year rollercoaster of sales success and setbacks). Today Brandon and I discuss what’s not working in sales today. Times Have Changed for Sales Cold emailing and cold calling still work, but not as well as in the past. The internet is changing consumers behavior.  They are spending more time alone shopping and comparing before calling the sales line. It used to be that growing a big email lists was the path to success. But it doesn’t work as well as it did in the past. People can smell a pitch a mile away. A small list of targeted prospects is better. Sales Solutions That May Work Be eminently reachable – post your calendar online and let people find a spot that works for them. Use email prudently asking for advice and help if you’re a startup: Hi I’m a founder like you,  I’ve created a new application, it does THIS, I’d really appreciate it if you would download, and give it a try then give us some feedback on it and  tells us what we did right and not right We’re very open for feedback. In this example you’re not selling but asking for advice. Kill them with flattery, by not selling, but getting them engaged. Be vulnerable and admit  you may not have the answer, but you’re open for feedback. This is authentic. Pushy sales is what’s not working in sales today. How to Find Brandon Bruce Brandon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/ Website https://www.cirrusinsight.com/ Twitter @cirrusinsight Babble me to enter the drswing for Brandon’s swag! Business Development Listen to past episodes to find ways to grow business quickly. Repeatable Success for Sales Development Reps with Brendan Barrett #188 Startup Story Where Software Goes to Seed with Charlie Wiltgen #179 Myths on Social Selling with Mark Hunter #142 Understanding the Value of Testimonials #126 6 Simple Steps for Generating New Leads With Chris Helmers What Startups Need to Know about Business Development with Tim Allen #119 The post What’s Not Working In Sales Today with Brandon Bruce #204 appeared first on Sales Babble Sales Podcast | Sales Training | Sales Consulting |Sales Coaching.

In this episode we talk to Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-Founder at Cirrus Insight. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce/

How can you be more efficient with emailing? How can you get more insights from the prospect? Today's guest  is Brandon Bruce who has come from humble beginnings to now co-founding and growing Cirrus Insight with $12 million in revenue and #44 on The INC 500 List. They were the first Gmail salesforce connector in […] The post TSE 743: What's NOT Working in Sales Today appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

Brandon Bruce of Cirrus Insight makes his third guest appearance on CRM Talk. This time, he talks about the Cirrus Insight Platform, which is no longer only for Salesforce users. We also discuss the recent acquisition of Attach.

Brandon Bruce. He’s the COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insights, the sales plugin for Gmail and Outlook. The company is number 41 on the Inc. 5000 and the fastest growing company in Tennessee. Brandon once raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 35 hours and 7 minutes. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – The Energy Bus What CEO do you follow? – Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos Favorite online tool? — Google Drive and Slack How many hours of sleep do you get?— 6 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “I would’ve tried to start a full-fledged company earlier”   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:50 – Nathan introduces Brandon to the show 02:25 – Brandon was in Episode 226 of The Top 02:38 – They had $550K in funding 02:48 – The team back then was 55-60 and now it’s 70 02:59 – No additional funding has been raised 03:16 – Cirrus Insights is a fast-growing company that didn’t rely too much on VC 03:35 – 5 years ago, Cirrus Insights wanted to solve the problem of going back and forth between Gmail and Salesforce 03:53 – Cirrus Insights brings Salesforce into the inbox 04:05 – They also help sales reps to seamlessly update Salesforce from the back end 04:13 – Salesforce isn’t actually a CRM 04:38 – Cirrus Insights just launched Flight Plans, which is an extension of their philosophy 04:42 – It is fully built-in to Outlook and Gmail 04:44 – It allows people to setup a sequence of sales touches 04:58 – It’s personalized and low scale 05:51 – Cirrus Insights’ growth is mostly from the Salesforce app exchange 06:00 – Continued growth is still from word-of-mouth 06:31 – Cirrus Insights has passed 100K seats with an average seat price of $6 06:53 – The average seat price has gone up now 07:19 – Flight Plans is a new tier 07:24 – Cirrus Insights is the product name and Flight Plans is going to be an addition 07:27 – There are now 3 additions to the product 08:18 – Cirrus Insights has just passed $1M in MRR 09:00 – Customers are choosing Cirrus Insights over others because some are overpaying and underutilizing marketing operations 09:29 – Marketing and sales are now working as a team with Cirrus Insights 09:58 – Cirrus Insights now charges $8 per seat 10:32 – Marketing operation has 4 big, unicorn companies 10:49 – There are now hundreds of tools in marketing operation and it will be interesting to see a consolidation 11:04 – Brandon is thinking customers will just utilize the best tools for the job 11:33 – Cirrus Insights is trying to position themselves to be the best at what they do 11:43 – They’re also continuing to offer more in the future 13:00 – Gross customer churn: 15-20% annually, but they’re targeting to lower it down to 10% 13:30 – There’s a lot less churn in the enterprise 14:17 – Net annual revenue churn is still negative and net seat churn is below 10% 15:16 – Most of the new leads are from word-of-mouth, with some small scale paid acquisition 15:22 – They’re more focused on the content that can drive more people 15:25 – Brandon has read The Slow Sale which is about how slowing down can win more deals 16:30 – Budget for paid marketing is $25-50K 16:43 – They’ve done sponsorship for conferences, but the ROI is getting low 17:25 – Check out their podcast: Our Love Hate Relationship with Sales, which drives sales as well 18:22 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: As saturated as the market is, there’s still a way for your business to stand out. Marketing and sales teams are looking for tools that will not just help them with their workload, but encourage them to work together. If your company constantly adds value, word-of-mouth will be your driver of sales.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Brandon’s run for Knoxville city council, persistent CRM adoption problems and what to do about them, where salespeople actually build relationships, CRM as a management reporting tool, meeting users where they work, bringing CRM data into the inbox, updating CRM in the inbox, saving salespeople time and helping them make more money. Managing nuts & bolts CRM tasks in the inbox, under-utilization of marketing automation, transferring the drip marketing apparatus to sales, programming your sales playbook, using best practices to develop Flight Plans, landing in the prospect’s inbox instead of in their Promotions tab. Brandon’s book, “The Slow Sale. How Slowing Down Wins More Deals” and the need for a quiet period while working a deal, the dangers of focusing too heavily on sales acceleration, reconciling management pressure to close deals with the value of the quiet period, open communications in selling and avoiding surprises, Brandon’s experience with a timeshare salesperson’s process and what happened when he veered from the seller’s playbook, sales effectiveness vs. sales efficiency.

In this episode we talk to Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-Founder at Cirrus Insight.

Brandon Bruce is the Co-Founder and COO @ Cirrus Insight, the plugin for Gmail and Outlook that automatically updates Salesforce as you work. Cirrus is a bootstrapped startup with triple-digit yearly growth since it's founding 4 years ago and has grown from 2 co-founders in 2011 to a team of 55 people today. And I have to say a huge thanks to Aaron Ross, Author @ Predictable Revenue for the intro to Brandon today. Likewise, if you want to join me and Jason for mojitos at SaaStr Annual 2017 and also want an incredible 20% off ticket prices, then all you have to do is click here! In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did Brandon make his way into the world of SaaS and come to found Cirrus Insight? What does Brandon mean he says he likes to take the road less travelled in Sales? What have been his learnings from his interactions on the front line of sales? How has it changed how he approaches sales? How are Cirrus so efficient at events in terms of getting more leads, meeting and sales? What is the strategy going into events? How can we optimise this? Speaking of events in general there, how does Brandon look to define prospect and buyer personas? How important is this for events? How narrow and specific do these personas have to be? Brandon has stated before in the importance of learning and doing manual before automatic with the future in mind. What do he mean by this and how does it affect his roadmap and thought process to the future going forward? 60 Second SaaStr Favourite SaaS reading material? What does Brandon know now that he wish he had known at the beginning? The biggest challenge of running Cirrus and how Brandon looks to combat it? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Brandon Bruce

Your salespeople don’t care how many clicks your email gets. Their metric is the amount of people who follow through on those clicks. Are your meetings leading to more sales? If not, then it’s time to look at a different metric that can move the needle for your business. In this episode, Brandon Bruce, CEO & Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight, talks about CRM adoption and how you can bring Salesforce to your inbox.

Brandon Bruce is the co-founder and CEO of Cirrus Insight, a plug-in app for Gmail and Outlook that tracks emails, schedules meetings, and updates sales figures automatically. Listen as Brandon takes The Top audience into the intricacies of his business, and shares how he “worked-backwards” from the perspective of the end-user to build a winning brand. Famous 5Favorite Book? – Good Strategy, Bad StrategyWhat CEO do you follow?— N/AWhat is your favorite online tool?— Assistant.toDo you get 8 hours of sleep?— NoIf you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Start a company as soon as possible Time Stamped Show Notes:01:00 – Nathan’s introduction01:33 – Nathan welcomes Brandon01:57 – Cirrus Insight’s revenues for 2015 - $6.5M ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue)02:28 – What Cirrus Insight does02:57 – It was really built for ourselves – we found ourselves constantly switching between Gmail and Salesforce 03:55 – The secret of ranking so well in the Salesforce app exchange? Positioning and designing the brand as an end-user based application04:48 – Huge benefits can be drawn from the volume of users as well as the volume of reviews07:30 – MRR was $640,00009:39 – Net negative churn11:39 – Best spend was on events and partner marketing14:07 – We try our best to stay really close to the customer and make sure we’re providing value everyday16:16 – Focus on the Google market16:45 - @CirrusInsight and www.cirrusinsight.com/blog 3 Key Points:Your company, product, etc. needs to be engineered from the perspective of the end-user.Stay close to your customers—provide value EVERY day.Events and partner marketing are a great way to spend your marketing dollars.Resources Mentioned:Gmail – google-owned web-based email serviceOutlook – a free personal email service from MicrosoftSalesforce – an enterprise cloud that provides CRM software solutionsHost Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable. CreditsShow Notes provided by Mallard Creatives   The Top is FOR YOU if you are: A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4) STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7) An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1) The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14). Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.   Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop

Steve interviews Brandon Bruce, co-founder of CirrusPath, at Dreamforce 2015 in the Admin Zone. Steve's company's site | Sam's company's site

https://www.cirrusinsight.com/ Going to Dreamforce? https://www.cirrusinsight.com/dreamforce/ Get your Free Copy of "The Maverick Selling Method" on Audible by writing a review on iTunes for this podcast. Then email me the review at BrianGburns@me.com Join the LinkedIn Group Maverick Sellers and get two Free Ebooks. The Ebooks will be emailed to you via autoresponder once you join the group. Subscribe to MaverickMethod on YouTube and watch my Free Social Selling Course. @BrianGburns on Twitter Connect with me on on LinkedIn and check out my Pulse posts - Brian Burns How to post a PodCast review on iTunes: https://youtu.be/_ZRG_MMWZSY

Church Planting Pulse day with Brent Dongell, Brandon Bruce, Mark Parker, Michael Croteau & Richard Cox.

This week, we check out the early reviews of Firechaser Express at Dollywood. The ride looks cool... but has a few quirks.  Also, EB tells us about his family's Spring Break Trip to Florida.  While he was there, he was a star of a stage show at the Nick Hotel. Plus, Mike's Office Party is going to be in an interesting place! Wait until you hear where he'll be. And, we interview Brandon Bruce from Six Flags Great America about Goliath! Plus, a Live Trip Report from Disneyland and whole lot more!

Glenn Lehner of LinkPoint360 and Brandon Bruce of CirrusPath, publishers of Cirrus Insight, join Steve and Sam to discuss an assortment of topics around email client to CRM integration.

Imagine you're walking into your favorite theme park and heading straight for favorite roller coaster. Just as you come up on the familiar twists and turns, you notice something strange.... the cars are facing backwards! This will be the experience for parks fans in the Chicago area when Six Flags Great America runs Batman: The Ride backwards for part of the 2013 season. On this week's show, we'll talk with Brandon Bruce, the park's communication's specialist about the excitement surrounding the change and why they decided to do it. We'll also find out more about igNIGHT, the park's new nighttime spectacular that will feature fireworks, special effects, live music and a storyline unique to the Windy City. We also ask you guys about your "Opening Day" traditions. Here in the United States, Spring Break is in full swing.  So that means that many of us are taking our first steps into the parks after a long winter hibernation. It's a special moment when we first walk into our favorite theme park after so many months away.  Because of this, each of us has our own unique traditions and customs to mark the occasion.   We'll hear about listener's "interesting" ways to  celebrate the start of the season. Plus, we'll have a Live Trip Report from Six Flags America and a whole lot more!

http://www.thesaleswhisperer.com/blog/topic/podcast http://MakeEverySale.com * UC Santa Barbara with co-founder * Built some websites * Found a gap in the market in 2011 * Salesforce.com * Gmail was growing for businesses * Wanted to work with Salesforce from within Gmail in one screen * Solo-founders can suffer from being alone * Co-founders can break up * They've been friends for 18 years so they can be open and honest with each other * Helps in the startup world where you have to move fast * Ryan is in Irvine, CA but Brandon is in Knoxville, TN * It was more affordable to scale being in Tennessee * Brandon reached out to each person he saw posting online that they wanted a better interface * Emailed them * Called them * They got 1,000 to sign up as beta testers and soon realized it was bigger than a free add-on * Got the first 500 paying customers * How to launch and monetize a new idea * Hit up friends and family for seed money * How to price your new software / solution * Special offer for beta users * Put a time frame on it * How to double your prices * Who to hire first * Brought on two sales, marketing, and customer support first before Dreamforce * Ryan was solo on the development side along with consultants * Engineers were and are hard to find and keep * How to hire via referrals and recommendations * Be easy to meet with, especially in the beginning * Most self-select out * How to originate and close an enterprise sale * What ads are working to grow sales today * Leveraging LinkedIn, Gmail, and Outlook * How to structure your sales team for the SMB vs enterprise sale * The art of the slow sale Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-sales-podcast/exclusive-content Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy