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KAMCast - Key Account Management Strategies for Business Leaders
IN THIS EPISODEThis is such an expansive topic, I really wanted to add some context and perspective to the subject here. So, I'm going to really open this discussion up for you with some background to get you in the right mindset to listen to this episode. If you had to be truthful - what kind of salesperson would you say you are? What's your natural selling style? Do you deploy an intentional methodology to maximise the impact of your interactions? Or are you winging it along the way, relying on personality to build those relationships with key contacts? The evolution of an account manager, over the decades, has taken us on a bit of a journey: Let's visit the 70s…Where the gift of the gab was enough to see you into a meeting with a key decision maker - armed with a bag full of good stories and friendly chat. Your products could be sold on the dazzling features of the solution, peppered with light-hearted humour to entertain your prospect into submission. By the 1980s…The marketplace was seeing a new breed of sales representatives and sales executives who had polished up their presentation skills to become the informer, the educator, and the ambassadors for their wares. Their projection skills were on-point and their ability to bring products to life whilst selling the features, the advantages, and the benefits were 2nd to none. The real issue boiled down to listening though. They were so good at waiting to speak that they forgot to pause and listen! When a client had the audacity to ‘interrupt' them – they would quickly be shot down by a range of techniques and gimmicks inspired by books like ‘how to develop a killer instinct' or ‘101 different ways to overcome and objection'. The 80s sales arena really was the home of manipulation, coercion, and persuasion, and ‘selling', for many, started to become a very dirty word. Introducing the shift in the 1990s and 2000s…In a bid to move away from the boiler room sales tactics of old and the greasy salespeople that were giving a legitimate profession a bad name, account managers began to focus on a primary ingredient of the relationship dynamic. If all businesses existed to solve a problem, then account managers needed to become problem solvers. This shift saw a development of a much softer, more skillful consultative selling approach with an emphasis on problem-solving and a full understanding of the customer needs, concerns and aspirations through well-crafted open questions active listening, and summarising skills. Unlike their predecessors, problem solvers have shown a genuine interest in the customer's business. So, in essence, we can see that the gossiping entertainer (who liked talking about others) morphed into the boring informer (who liked talking about themself) and then evolved into the consultative problem solver who finally learned the value of talking to the customer about, well, the customer. What role does today's account manager play then?How do the problem solvers of the 90s and noughties transition from the consultative selling world of the efficient supplier, to the transformational space of the effective business partner? A world where account managers are collaborative, not just competitive, and more importantly they: understand the customer's world focus on the front-end of the sales process, not the backend (closing) talk about return on investment, not products and services say relatively little (as the customer is doing most of the talking) position themselves as trusted advisors work with customers interests in mind as well as their own play it long – understanding that genuine relationships take time understand what customers' expectations are follow-up and stay connected, even if they do not win the business Today's key account manager realises that they need to be in the customer's heart, not in their face. To truly win in today's world of KAM…it requires an intentional approach to the relationship. And to understand...
After the demo, what's next? It's time to end the endless cycle of checking in sharing generic marketing content while you are in working the middle funnel. Join us for a very special ShiftHappens to explore the intersection of value drivers and strategic narratives, to help you craft "value stories". Stories win hearts and minds, and value is expresssed in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. How can we start combine the two? Join ShiftHappens on Thurs Dec 10th to explore marketing myths, define value drivers, and craft better stories to engage stakeholders. Featuring a round table workshop with Meghann Misiak, Sales Strategist at The Path to President's Club. Trent Anderson, Chief Operating Officer at Prewrite. Chris Ortolano, Account Strategist at Outbound Edge. Topics include: Defining Complex Problems Working with Champions to define "value" Collaborating to co-create "value stories" Walk away a template to stand apart from the competition with account specific value stories to increase stakeholder engagement. The Path to President's Club enables B2B Sales Teams to increase close rates & ACV through value-centric sales training, coaching, & proven frameworks. Prewrite helps Marketing and Sales leaders craft a business story library to deliver stories that add value and capture the imagination. Outbound Edge develops sales process templates and diagnostic content for AM's to increase stakeholder engagement via Account Growth plans. Outbound Edge is a certified Membrain Partner.
Are you an SDR/BDR or AE who one day wants to be a consultant? If so, this episode is for you! Introducing Chris Ortalnao, CEO and Founder of Outbound Edge. Chris has been in the sales game for over 10 years and started off with a background in accounting. He believes in data, analytics, and basing powerful decisions off it. "Numbers don't lie" is his motto. Chris also focuses on the middle of the funnel in the sales process otherwise known as "After the demo, what's next?" He's also a community leader at SaleStack.io, an online sale community focused on helping each other. Come join us as he shares his L E A R N method along with "The 5 Why's" on how to be an effective sales professional. Whether if you're a consultant, AE, SDR/BDR. If you want to uplevel your game, here's how you do it. Chris's LinkedIn Bio: Designing and developing customized Account Alignment Plans to increase stakeholder engagement using lightweight SaaS opportunity management tools that integrate seamlessly with your CRM. Tired of running into deal breakers? Start aligning the sale process with your Internal Champions. I provide Account Alignment Plans in Kiite, Guru, and Airtable to increase stakeholder engagement. Each account plan is designed to help resolve complex problems, facilitate decision making, then focus on mitigating risk for transitional deals that are not Enterprise, but not transactional either. Account Alignment Plans are real-time interactive decision-making tools customized to meet the needs of intermediate complex deals to define, align, and then collaborate with internal champions. https://www.linkedin.com/in/salesnerdo/ https://salestack.io/ http://outboundedge.com/
W O R K B U R N O U T In life, you're always gonna be hit with setbacks. Whether it's in personal, love, or business. Shits gonna happen, that's just the way it is. I've taken many L's in my life before, but this was one of the biggest L I've ever taken which prompted me to take on a two weeks solo trip, fully disconnected from work. I booked a blind flight straight to my cousin's place, who's a retired vet of the Army living in Spanaway, WA. No plans, No directions, No Expectations. Right when I got there, he was able to lend me a car. Drove straight down south for two hours and a half, landing in the heart of Portland Oregon! Was able to network with a few folks in person such as Chris Ortolano, Founder & CEO of Outbound Edge and Niko Hughes, SVP & Founder of Better Growth. In addition, I was able to hit the trails and waterfalls. Getting lost in the woods and that is where I found myself again. If you're currently going through work burnouts, getting away to disconnect is one of the best ways to do it. 4:00 B E R E A L 08:14 THE STORY OF LES BROWN 11:11 "In life you will always be faced with God-ordained opportunities, brilliantly disguised as problems and challenges." 11:40 "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David Schwartz 13:22 "Person 1, Person 2, Person 3" Which one are you? 16:22 Diaz vs McGregor 17:00 Les Brown 60 Sec Pitch
In this episode I have a great conversation with Chris Ortolano of Sales Stack and Outbound Edge on the importance of creating agile market assessments. Dramatic market shifts are occurring and doing your homework is critical. We further discuss some of these emerging markets such as Telehealth, Ed tech, Ecommerce and how to lean in and build meaningful business conversations.
In this episode, we talk to Chris Ortolano of MilwaukieRIP, a community outreach organization that works with urban planners and other community members on land use and transportation planning efforts.
"There's a better way to engage stakeholders and then do your product pitch. Use sales insights to engage critical stakeholders and use these meetings to better understand their goals and concerns. " - Chris Ortolano in today's Tip 200 What are your sales insights? Join the conversation at DailySales.Tips/200 and share your thoughts! Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm
"Start writing your own product narrative framework and then use this framework to start crafting your own customer stories." - Chris Ortolano in today's Tip 193 How do developing your sales narrative? Join the conversation at DailySales.Tips/193 and share your ideas too! Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm
"An ecosystem maturity model is a simple way to paint a picture, further qualify your prospects and engage even more stakeholders." - Chris Ortolano in today's Tip 185 Are you using your own ecosystem maturity model? Join the conversation at DailySales.Tips/185 and share your thoughts! Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: scott@top1.fm
Chris Ortolano is the Founder and Principal of Outbound Edge. He works closely with Sales Managers and VP's to address one of the most common pipeline problems: knowing which deals will close and why? Chris deploys a lean matrix to weight deal factors, score deal progress, and negotiation skills to stress test deals, allowing his clients to dump the bad deals, streamline the pipeline, and focus on deals with a higher probability of C/W. -- Follow Chris below: Twitter Website Linkedin Hubs Vidyard Stories
Chris Ortolano joins the Prospecting Podcast to talk about story telling in sales and prospecting. More info on LeadIQ: https://ter.li/8qkeqy
Today's guest on the podcast is sales nerd Chris Ortolano of Outbound Edge. Not only does Chris do sales consulting for companies, he's also the creator of a community I always recommend to people: Sales Stack Slack. On this episode we learn a bit about his sales process and the buyer journey at Outbound Edge, but what you really don't want to miss out on are the tidbits about how his Slack community came together and how it brings value to over 1,500 sales professionals. Through this Slack channel the pros connect and share their knowledge, discuss tools of the trade, converse about hiring processes, leadership and more. The biggest takeaway here is learning how to build something similar to this community so you that people gravitate towards you and seek you out as a thought leader.
Episode Overview This episode features Chris Ortolano, a sales workflow consultant based in Portland, Oregon. He provides an outside perspective to help organizations address their weaker elements to accelerate their revenue cycle. He is a leader of his firm, Outbound Edge, and will speak about the power of video in sales outreach and how to drive buyer engagement. Episode Timestamps [1:30] How Chris became focused on helping sellers use video to connect with potential buyers Manages an online community of sales and marketing professionals called salesstack.io: Met people who work at Vidyard who introduced him to a software tool called GoVideo. Focuses on producing crisp, compelling, and clear messages to engage with buyers. [2:26] Why should sellers be using video as an outreach tool? The way that we engage with buyers is changing: We now have the ability to tell a story through a visual medium. Creates a more compelling and lasting message. [3:25] What are the barriers that get in the way of individual sellers taking advantage of the medium of video? Time: You need to practice. Set aside 30 minutes to learn and practice your script for clear delivery in the message that you are communicating with your viewers. Psychological confidence: 2 kinds of videos in sales: Video conferencing. Selfie. Voiceovers. Chris uses a voiceover narrative approach: His videos are not about him, making the focus on helping his prospect solve their problem. Finding your voice: Takes practice. Think like your buyer: The decisions that they make, how they measure their decisions, and what their goals are. Layer your message into their experience. Provides a more relevant and engaging way to suggest that you want to meet with them and pursue a more in-depth conversation. Take advantage of the visual guide on salesstack.io where you can walk through 7 steps so that you can practice before you record and send your video. [6:21] Success stories of Chris and using video Uses video selling with social selling: Connects with peers on Linkedin. Makes videos for the CEOs of the connections that he makes on Linkedin. Video can increase the acceleration with which you can set meetings. [7:23] How can sellers prepare to do video outreach? What should their content structure look like? Uses 3 step approach to an account plan: Set the meeting. Move the needle. Get everyone on the bus. [12:17] How to leverage video for outreach Manage your time. Do your research. Use phrase when reaching out “I noticed that…” Always add value with your video that exposes something about the market that your prospect might not understand. [14:35] After you send the prospecting video, if the recipient does not respond, do you send another video? Resend that same video. [15:26] Technology blockers that might prevent prospects from viewing your video? Use a video solution that allows you to embed that video as a thumbnail into the body of an email. Vidyard GoVideo [16:50] How to personalize your video for different prospects Called a “Selfie”: Personalized for each prospect. Take a multi-tab screencast approach. If you put time and energy into thinking about your buyer you'll get a better deal, as well as learn to be a better sales consultant as well. [17:48] Multitab screencast approach Reference your buyer: Start with their account. Reflect on what you see in their business model. Suggest a problem that they have that you can solve. Switch between their account/your account: Move from the current state to their future state. [18:30] Resources Sales assets online: Stories in Focus Library Interview video blog 3 guides at SalesStack.io: For people getting started. Learn how to do the selling model. Do it on a consistent basis. Turn around and teach someone how to do it. When you teach something, you are raising your level of skill because you can summarize, engage, and look for things. Changes the way you view your own process. Additional Resources Connect with Chris on LinkedIn Follow Chris on Twitter Visit Chris' Web site - Outbound Edge Call Camp - Unlocking the Power of Video in Sales Outreach Get more selling done! Engage with Video Selling: Part 1 Stories in Focus Contest How to use video in your sales cadence For More Great Content I would appreciate it if you would subscribe, rate, and review this show at Apple Podcasts. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will help me promote the show to others who will benefit. Credits Sound editing and show notes produced by – ChirpSound
Chris Ortolano, Sales Productivity Partner at Outbound Edge, and Chapter President of the AA-ISP in Portland, Oregon, joins me on this episode.
SalesStack co-founder and Portland, Oregon Sales Enablement Society president Chris Ortolano knows Sales Enablement better than just about anyone. In this episode, Chris and Stu explore the intersection of Sales Enablement and Contact Marketing—what they are, how they fit together and how one really can't exist without the other.