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Your Sales Kick-Off Meetings Are a Waste of Time!

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

As sales teams mount their final push to finish 2019 strong, someone in a sales enablement, marketing or sales support role is planning what has become status quo in sales. The annual sales kick off (SKO) meeting.

As the term implies, a sales kick-off meeting is meant to be a sales reset. An opportunity to review what worked and what didn’t in the prior year while also creating the positive momentum needed to achieve sales goals for the year ahead.

But let’s get real. Most SKO’s are a complete waste of time and money.

Throughout my sales career, I’ve attended plenty of these meetings and usually left them feeling ticked off that 3-5 days of my selling time was wasted, and I was away from my family to boot.

Though the “goal” is to set the stage for sales success, SKO agendas are dominated with things that do not help salespeople be better at the craft of selling. That includes new product announcements, product feature training, product demos, reviews of marketing materials, or execs who feel their title justifies air time with the sales force when it doesn’t.

Use your SKO time to train your sellers how to be better at selling; otherwise scrap the meeting.

SKO’s are expensive! Studies suggest that the average per head cost is between $1,500-$3,000. Conservatively, it can cost $75,000+ for a 50-person sales team to attend your SKO plus the cost of other people in your company who attend too. That doesn’t even account for event planning costs, or the lost opportunity cost due to non-selling time while salespeople attend the event.

Companies are literally burning cash on SKO activities that do not advance sales performance.

Given the expense of these meetings, it is a huge miss to waste time on anything that does not directly impact a salesperson’s ability to sell more effectively to today’s modern buyer. As Salesforce reported in the 3rd annual State of Sales research, “winning deals still requires human to human interaction.”

And, it isn’t just any human interaction that will get the job done. It must be the right interaction that happens at the right time and in the right way.

Buyer expectations keep rising. How does your SKO prepare salespeople for this ongoing reality?

The surprising thing is that this is NOT a new revelation. What is surprising is how many companies remain mired in their own status quo, and as a result, they fail to adapt and act on what B2B buyers keep making clear. The salespeople they will give their time and attention to are the rare ones who demonstrate that they operate differently from other salespeople.

Nowhere on this list does it say that buyers want sellers coming at them with generic, product feature driven sales pitches. They certainly don’t care if you redesigned your marketing materials.

Buyers do say they have higher standards for salespeople, can take their business anywhere, expect vendors to personalize their approach, and that they will work with sellers who act as trusted advisors.

Use your SKO as an opportunity to train salespeople to be what buyers want them to be!

If buyers want to work with salespeople who are trusted advisors, what does that mean?

Trusted advisor defines the salesperson who has exceptional, targeted knowledge about specific business problems that decision makers in certain roles and industries face. These salespeople solve problems and put the needs of the buyer FIRST. Sales reps don’t become trusted advisors without help and that means training.

With that in mind, how is your SKO agenda training your salespeople to:

  • Engage rather than repel buyer interest with sales messaging and approach?
  • Conduct sales meetings using business acumen & insight vs. feature dumps & demos?
  • Manage multiple relationships with “buying teams”?
  • Compete with buyer status quo?
  • Reduce the sales cycle length and close deals more often?

A better playbook for designing that sales kick-off meeting.

  1. Planning beyond the event. Your plan must include what happens prior to the SKO, during the event, and how the training you deliver will be adopted and acted upon after the event.
  2. Clearly define the behavior you want to change. Be specific. After the SKO we want our sales reps to demonstrate competency in the 3 key traits of a trusted advisor. Then go deeper. What specifically does or will hinder our ability to evolve our salespeople into trusted advisors? Lack of training? The activity KPI’s we set today, which incent the wrong behavior? Are there internal systems, processes or even management biases getting in the way of the objective too?
  3. Plan pre-work prior to your kick-off event. Brainshark’s research found that “more than six out of 10 organizations (62%) don’t deliver pre-work to sales representatives in advance of their SKO, and 84% don’t conduct training in advance – neglecting to provide a foundation on the skills and topics that will be covered.”
  4. Create and block plenty of time for role plays at the event. Sports teams don’t show up on the field once a week expecting to win the game. They run plays and practice possible game day scenarios every day. Sales teams should operate the same way. Practice improves skills, turns them into ingrained habits and builds confidence.
  5. Reinforce. Your SKO sales training establishes the foundation for better sales results, and behavior will not change after one training. For salespeople to embrace and act-on the new skills they’ve just learned, coaching and management reinforcement must happen consistently after the event concludes.

Conduct your SKO with the right “end in mind” or don’t bother to do it all.

A sales kick-off meeting has huge potential if done in the right way.

The end goal should be that salespeople leave the event having improved their selling skills. The skills that decision makers expect of them. The skills that position your sellers to achieve their quota and deal profitability objectives in year ahead.

Everything else is a waste of money and time that can be better spent elsewhere!

Filed Under: blog, Featured Story Tagged With: b2b, leadership, meetings, productivity, sales, sales kickoffs, sales management, training

Dig That Well Before You’re Thirsty

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

By now, if you’ve read some of my work, listened to any of my interviews, you know that I believe that learners are earners. People often tell me that they have a desire to keep on top of their own learning but then complain that they just do not have the time.

We all have the same 24-hours in a day.

That is not meant to be flippant or sound like I lack empathy for others who may have more and different obligations than I do. I simply believe that when any of us choose to focus on what we believe to be important; we will make time for it.

Why make learning a priority?

As 21st century humans, we live in a world moving at speeds faster than our predecessors could have imagined. The rapid pace of change is dizzying, and all signs indicate that won’t be stopping any time soon.

To remain relevant as people and business professionals, our learning mindset must always be on. Whether it is through reading (I’m a junkie), podcasts, webinars or watching video clips, or any combination that works for you, there are so many ways to learn on the fly that you have no excuse not to.

Even 10-minutes a day learning something new will translate into 3,650 minutes of learning or 60.83333 hours of new learning each year!

You seriously cannot invest 10-minutes a day?

Harvey McKay wrote a book called Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty and while many books written about networking have been published since Harvey’s, what I liked about Harvey’s book is that he says DON’T WAIT UNTIL YOU NEED YOUR NETWORK to build it. Many an employee surprised by the news that their job was eliminated have discovered the hard way how painful it is when they don’t have a network to fall back on.

Networking and learning the 21st century way.

Online networking and relationship building using platforms like LinkedIn has never been easier. Yet, even today, I’m surprised at the number of people who barely keep their profile up to date, much less dig that well before they need it.

Aside from the networking and relationship building, LinkedIn has also become quite a learning resource. You can learn from others through their articles and posts or follow hashtags (#) that feature topics of interest most relevant to you.

The point is that you must keep up.

What you know today is important. What you know about what’s coming or could be coming is how you maintain relevance when others are left behind.

I’ll close this post with another book recommendation.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein.

As David says, “Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.”

He makes the strong case that range of knowledge and skill is of high value. Being educated in many different areas I have found to be of great importance as a sales professional. The more diverse our education and skills, the easier it is to connect with people on so many different and diverse levels.

I’ll continue to promote my belief that learners are earners. A few times each month, watch for posts that promote books, podcasts, articles or videos I recommend.

AND… please share YOUR favorites with me and my readers in the blog comments.

Filed Under: blog, Previous Posts Tagged With: b2b, commission, digital transformation, earning, education, learning, productivity, revenue, salary, sales

Constructing Sales Success – Tips for Women in Sales

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

The many sales challenges faced by men and women in sales roles are largely the same.

  • Difficulty getting through to buyers.
  • Not enough qualified leads in the pipeline.
  • Too much administrative work and not enough selling time.
  • Trying to keep competitors at bay.
  • Keeping sales skills sharp.
  • The rapid pace of change.
  • And more.

Selling in today’s 21st century environment is more challenging than ever. That means that our ability to transcend obstacles to success is as much about managing our beliefs, mindset and attitude, as it is about being highly skilled at the various aspects of the selling process.

I’ve written about the business case for women in sales many times.

Research supports that a strategic focus on diversity and inclusion positively impacts revenue, the customer experience and fosters cultures that are forward thinking and innovative.

Volumes have been written about bro cultures, women being held back, gaps in pay. All truths that have merit. There is no question that there is work to be done. Progress has been slow to fix many of the pervasive problems that persist.

At the same time, I want women in sales (or in any role), to remember that there are times when we may undermine our success without even realizing it through some of these common behaviors.

Being Seen Not Heard.

I’m not the only woman who has felt seen but not heard in meetings. Many women don’t realize that they are more likely than men to “wait” to be called on to speak.

Women also have a tendency to downplay their certainty about their ideas, business opinions, or even the products they sell. They hedge their assertions making them seem less confident than they are. If you want to be heard, rather than fume at being overlooked or feel your ideas were dismissed, make it your business to assert yourself by speaking up clearly, confidently and concisely.

If you are in a sales role, this behavior is especially problematic. There is a gap in gender diversity in departments other than sales in many companies, which means that the buyers we are approaching are mostly men. If you appear to lack confidence in what you sell, these male buyers won’t feel confident in buying from you.

Leveraging Relationships vs. Building Them

Often, we hear that women possess the innate strength of building relationships. While I believe that to be true, I’ve also noticed that many women shy away from leveraging the power of the relationships they’ve built.

I’m as guilty of this behavior as anyone. As much as I talk with guests on the Conversations with Women in Sales podcast about how important it is for women to stop sitting on the sidelines waiting for others to notice their good work, reward them, promote them or help them when they need a favor, I find myself doing the same thing without realizing it.

For many of us this is a bias hidden away in our DNA that cautions us against asking for specific help from the people in the networks we’ve established. Adding to our concern is the judgment many of us have felt by other women who signal to us that our ask is selfish or overly ambitious. For the record, women who judge other women, and it happens far more often than you might think, are often unaware that they do it.

I have to give a hat tip to men here. They don’t usually fall into this trap. If they need help, they don’t hesitate to ask for it.

The TMI (Too Much Information) Trap

This sabotaging behavior isn’t new news. How you use your words matter and never is that truer than in selling.

It is important to note that the urban myth that women speak 20,000 words in a day while men speak 7,000 was debunked in a 2007 study.

It isn’t the number of words men and women use in a day; they are basically the same number. The core difference is in how words are used. Women are often tuned out because they take too much time to get to the point. And, yes, I’ve been guilty of this behavior too. Women often preface their suggestions with a lot of backstory and unnecessary background. Side observations obscure the main point, while over explaining the rationale behind the point they want to make creates a perception that they lack confidence in their abilities.

Tip: Get to the point and let people ask for more details as they need it!

Minimizing

Stop downplaying your achievements!

There is that old joke about there not being an “I’ in team, which always made me laugh. Look closely at the word, and you’ll see the word “me”. Not we, me.

Our male counterparts use “I” more often when speaking. Women, on the other hand, use “we” more often. On the surface “we” sounds inclusive. When we believe that our accomplishments came together as a result of a team effort, we are reluctant to call specific attention to our part in the process.

Research confirms that using “we”, especially if you are responsible for leading a team, creates confusion about your role in a specific effort. The higher ups wonder… Did you lead it? Were you essential to the outcome? What exactly do you mean when you say “we”?

Women are discouraged from “self-promotion” beginning at an early age. Promoting our own efforts is equated to bragging. Bragging equals bad. How we present our accomplishments may be the difference, but marketing how we contributed to the success of the business or any team project is part of the job.

People Pleasing and the Perfection Trap

Many women, including me, suffer from the disease to please. Voltaire wrote that “Perfect is the enemy of good.” A manager I worked for gave me that feedback once, and at the time, it really annoyed me. When I thought about it later, I understood what Voltaire meant. He meant that perfection is an illusion. Not everyone will like us or agree with us but trying to navigate our careers through the lens of trying to be something we aren’t doesn’t make much sense. It certainly leads to more heartache than needed.

In closing

External factors that can block our path certainly exist.  I began my sales career in the macho, male dominated world of tech, and enjoyed great success all through the years. And like so many women, I’ve dealt with my share of biases that presented obstacles I felt were unwarranted or unfair. At the same time, I recognize that there have been times when I let my own insecurities and behaviors work against me. I know I’m not alone.

I’ve always been inspired by Viktor Frankl and his story. In the most horrific of circumstances, he came to the realization that no matter what the circumstance, WE HAVE A CHOICE! If where you are today is not where you want to be, what choice will YOU make to turn things around?

NOTE: A similar but shorter version of this post was originally published as an article in the Top Sales World Magazine in June 2019 – Women in Sales Edition.

Filed Under: blog, More Favorites Tagged With: behavior, leadership, management, sabotage, sales, women, women in sales

How Does Your Sales Experience Stack Up?

By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

Creating differentiated, personalized customer experiences is a top business initiative for most organizations. Executives know that when exceptional experiences are delivered, they distance themselves from their competitors. The reverse is also true. When things don’t go well, the negative brand impact on your company has greater potential for damage that goes far beyond losing a sale or a current customer.

Every interaction someone has with your company matters. That is especially true when it is your salespeople.

The term “customer experience” is misleading. The use of the word customer suggests that your experience strategy begins once someone becomes a paying customer. But that’s not the case at all. The experience begins with the very first interaction someone has with your company. It could be a marketing interaction, and more often, that first touch starts with someone on the front lines of your sales organization. That touch could be a phone call, email, an in-person meeting at a business event or a LinkedIn connection request.

When companies are designing their experience strategy, that strategy must include the salesforce.

To me, that seems an obvious suggestion; however, I don’t believe that organizations are doing enough analysis to understand how ALL buyer interactions with their salespeople – starting with the first ones – are either helping or hurting pipeline and revenue objectives.

Gartner has defined Customer Experience Management as “the practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions to meet or exceed customer expectations and, thus, increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.”

I would revise Gartner’s definition slightly to say, “designing and reacting to prospect and customer interactions to meet or exceed their expectations and, thus, increase pipeline, revenue, satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.”

So, let’s talk about “aligning to the buyers’ journey”.

The most common strategy to engage new prospects starts with content. A lot of it. The idea is to deliver the right articles, white papers, case studies, videos or webinars at the right time in the buyers’ decision-making process.

Conventional wisdom says provide educational content that informs during stages when buyers are looking for products to solve their problems. Or, use content to provide insights into problems buyers’ may not know they have yet but are bound too, and they are more likely to book a sales meeting. Unfortunately, that may no longer be the case.

Content overload is creating a backlash to the buying experience.

Analyst reports indicate that buyers are inundated with so much content that the information overload is leading to the exact opposite reaction companies want. Rather than creating an experience that inspires buyers to more quickly engage with sales, they are opting to do nothing!

In a recent report from Gartner about how sellers can help buyers “make sense” of the overwhelming availability of high quality content; albeit, often with conflicting points of view, authors Neha Ahuja and Benjamin Hooker confirm that “when customers encounter too much information — even trustworthy, evidence-based information — they may stop learning. In such a scenario, customers reach a point of information saturation after which they can’t process new information.”

This leads to a point of diminishing return in the perceived value that information has to purchasing decisions. Rather than decisions being based on “quality data”, decision making becomes reminiscent of the days before the internet with buyers’ making decisions based on best guesses and gut feelings as opposed to rational, fact-based choices.

Which brings me back to the sales force. The people paid to sell to your products.

Information overload is causing problems. But so are salespeople with their messaging and approach, whether meaning too or not. Your sales team members are typically the first human exposure that someone has with your company.

What do you know about the experience those interactions are creating?

Unless what you sell requires little more than an order taker to seal the deal, evaluating what’s happening throughout the selling cycle when those interpersonal – people to people – sales interactions are taking place is a must. Often your salespeople are losing out on sales opportunities with the message they convey in the first email they send or phone call they make.

Another day we can debate why sales organizations spend an inordinate amount of time and money constantly chasing new logos. The reality is that they do. Empty pipeline phobia puts more pressure on salespeople to surface new sales opportunities any way that they can often without enough training and coaching to help them succeed.

Leaders own the fault here. When the default command is to do “more activity” to try and meet objectives, quality is bound to suffer and it does.

Banish magical thinking.

As I often do, I recently wrote another LinkedIn article about the need for salespeople and sales leaders to banish magical thinking and stop looking for short-cuts to engaging buyers. Cheap tricks in the form of subject lines, break up emails and other such nonsense simply reinforces that buyers don’t need sellers to help them in their purchasing decisions at all. There is a reason why 90% of the time buyers simply hit delete to rid themselves of constant deluge of sales spam.

Put yourself in the buyers’ shoes. Do you know what it is like to try and buy from you?

Go through every step of the journey as a buyer would. Download white papers or attend a webinar, and then experience what it feels like to be hounded by a salesperson through email, phone calls or LinkedIn connection requests. Evaluate the messaging that salespeople are using to try to book sales meetings. Are the messages focused on the issues relevant to the buyer or simply another attempt to sell with your product pitch? Engage directly with a salesperson and experience what it feels like to have features, benefits and a product demo pushed on you. Record sales calls and listen carefully to how your salespeople are representing your offering.

It is easy to toss around phrases like “improve the customer experience” or map your processes to the “buyers’ journey”, but in truth, the effort to transform existing processes isn’t easy.

But that doesn’t mean the transformation effort shouldn’t be undertaken. In fact, I believe it must be a strategic imperative!

We are about to enter the 4th and final sales quarter for most companies, and I can guarantee that the “do more” mantra will reach a fevered pitch with the end result being largely the same. As it has been for the past decade, roughly half of all sales teams will still not meet quota goals. Same activity = same results. Denial doesn’t change reality!

Filed Under: blog, sales Tagged With: customer experience, experience, Prospecting, quota, sales, sales leadership, sales management

Crush Quota With This Simple Funnel Formula

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Let’s talk about your plan to CRUSH QUOTA using a simple funnel formula to help you build pipeline and revenue.  If you prefer to listen rather than read, listen to the audio clip below.

Why do you need a formula?

Reps are almost always too optimistic about the ratio of their activity to opportunities on their path to close.

Take matters into your own hands using this formula that I learned about from Chris Bennett.

The funnel formula has 4 variables:

1. The number of opportunities on the go.

2. The average $ value of each opportunity.

3. Historic closing rate / if you are not sure, use 25%.

4. Average sales cycle time. Example: The # of opportunities x average $ deal size x average closing rate% divided by average time to close.

Look at a formula for a sales pro with a goal of $99,999 in gross profit.

100 deals x $10,000 = $1,000,000 x 25% = $250,000 divided by a 3-month sales cycle. This results in…

= $83,333 per month in sales x 10% GP

= $8,333 per month x 12 months

= $99,999 per year in GP.

Using this easy to follow formula, the sales pro made their plan. The beauty of this formula is that it keeps you grounded in the reality of what your pipeline really looks like and it helps keep you focused on the activities that will lead to you achieving your sales results. Don’t forget that you will regularly update your numbers during the month to stay on track.

Now, what would happen if you increased the top 3 variables – the # of opportunities x average $ deal size x average closing rate% – by just 10% and reduced sales cycle time by 10%?

Here is what happens:

110 deals x $11,000 = $1,210,000 x 27.5% = $332,750  divided by 2.7 months. This results in…

= $123,240 per month in sales x 10% GP

= $12,324 x 12 months

= $147,888 which is a 47% increase vs. the first formula that produced $99,999.

Watch the on-demand presentation that Chris and I delivered last year. Topic: 5 Ways Salespeople Can Create Compelling Value, Book Meetings and Build Pipeline. VIEW HERE

Filed Under: blog, sales Tagged With: funnel, pipeline, Prospecting, sales

Making It Rain in 2019

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Last week, I was making it rain opportunities through networking and education with over 1,000 sales professionals at SalesLoft’s Rainmaker 2019 conference. SalesLoft, a hometown tech success here in the ATL, launched Rainmaker in 2014. As I was putting this post together, I hopped into my time machine and zipped back to 2015 when I first attended Rainmaker and wrote about my experience that year.

What I realized in reading that 2015 blog post was that the more things change, the more they actually stay the same. Priorities important in 2015 are even more important today, in 2019. For example…

If you are in a sales role, you simply cannot wait around for others to give you everything you need to succeed. Don’t rely solely on your marketing team to understand the characteristics of your ideal buyer. You, the sales rep, need to own and understand the target buyer persona too. More importantly, you should be spending the bulk of your networking/prospecting/sales call time with ONLY those people! Success also relies on honing your skills, so that you can be the best at your craft of selling. That means you need to invest in your own learning and development every single day! Always keep in mind that learners are earners!

Message matters. If you want your outbound sales activity to convert to more sales conversations, YOU MUST PERSONALIZE your messages. Sales pitches fall on deaf ears. If you want a buyer to give you valuable time on their calendar, you better be focused on what they care about more than what you are trying to sell. That means doing your homework, and this is where tools like LinkedIn, the internet, company websites, Twitter, or InsideView can play a huge role in more effective sales messaging. Bottom line – if your message is all about YOU and what YOU SELL, you are doing it all wrong!

The best sellers DO NOT talk about products and services (see my point above).  These sellers don’t ramble on about the features of the products and services they sell. They don’t put buyers to sleep during demos talking about how they do this and why they do that. Especially in the beginning of a new sales relationship, much of that stuff doesn’t matter. Top sellers focus on helping buyers solve business problems that they will pay money to solve. Top sellers know how to ask the RIGHT questions and how to shut up and LISTEN to the answers.

The best sellers understand human behavior. They leverage their ability to clarify and confirm what they know based on up front research before talking to prospects. Validate what you know but don’t “interrogate” buyers during sales calls. Trust me, interrogation is exactly what it feels like to buyers when you insist on walking them through your lengthy discovery process. Instead, respect their precious time by learning much of that information ahead of the meeting. Your sales call will yield much better results!

Top sellers follow a sales process but are smart enough to adapt their approach to fit how the buyer makes purchasing decisions. You might need to eject your assumptions about the buyer’s journey. Even in similar industries, every company has decision making criteria unique to them. If you simply try to force a buyer/buying team to fit your sales process instead to adapting to their purchasing process, you’ll lose more deals than you will win.

Stop listening to experts who are legends in their own minds. Not everything about selling is dead. Nor is there one right way to be successful in selling. I don’t like making ice cold sales calls to strangers not expecting my call. I prefer to use other means to engage buyers first because that is what works for me. But hey, if your cold call activity is converting to a high number of sales calls with qualified buyers, then by all means… DO IT. Every sellers world is going to be unique. You must test, adapt, and test again to determine and consistently utilize what’s right for you.

Relationships in selling STILL matter! This point dovetails the one above. Believe it or not, more than a few self-proclaimed “experts” promote the idea that relationships in selling is dead. During the session I moderated on Social Selling, I asked panelists Samantha McKenna, Kat Charlot and Morgan J. Ingram what they thought about relationships and selling. They all agreed, as did the audience, that developing trusted relationships with targeted buyers is more important than ever. Mock experts trying to get their 15 minutes of fame by trying to be edgy and controversial are not good for our sales profession. In B2B sales, people still buy from people. Regardless how sophisticated technology becomes, I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Building exceptional sales teams drives exceptional sales results. On the morning of Day 3, the panel discussed the elements of building exceptional teams.  These panel leaders didn’t talk about squeezing one more millisecond of productivity out of people with another piece of technology. They talked about being human, embracing change and paying attention to the foundation of sales basics. All three leaders talked about being authentic, genuine, vulnerable human beings who hold themselves and others accountable. And during the conference they were not the only leaders to make clear that a people first focus is what drives success now and in the future.

I will close by giving high praise to the SalesLoft team for their focus on speaker diversity at Rainmaker! Other conference organizers… are you listening?

I am not the only woman in sales tired of virtual sales events, webinars and conferences that are dominated by white guys – of any age – on the speaking stage. Highly engaging, well qualified, diverse speakers are not difficult to find. Event organizers simply must make it a priority to better balance the scales.

There is a lot of chatter right now about “women in sales”… why we need to see more women on sales teams and in leadership roles and why diversity and inclusion initiatives are good for business. But talk is cheap! As my mom said often, “Action speaks louder than words!” I learned that SalesLoft set a goal of 51% speaker diversity for Rainmaker 2019. They achieved 54% with 46% of the conference speakers being women! And for the second year in a row, I moderated the panel discussion at the women’s breakfast that SalesLoft made a part of the conference last year. More on that experience in a separate post. A bias toward action is a core value at SalesLoft, and at Rainmaker 2019 they demonstrated that when it comes to excellence in selling, as well as diversity and inclusion, they walk their talk!

Filed Under: blog, sales Tagged With: BDR, inside sales, leadership, Rainmaker 2019, sales, salesloft, SDR, selling

Opening Executive Level Doors with Caryn Kopp

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

In this episode, I talked with Caryn Kopp AKA The Chief Door Opener at Kopp Consulting, an Inc 5000 winner, recognized for the Door Opener® Service where they get their clients meetings with high level decision makers in almost every major company. If you want to know how to open doors at the executive level, this is the interview for you!

We covered these questions during my conversation with Caryn:

  • Getting in the door with executive level prospects is one of the most difficult part of the sales process, bar none. I asked Caryn how her team, known for getting executive level meetings for your clients, does it. She shared her success secrets for prior open those doors when other companies and salespeople struggle.
  • Caryn will tell you how to figure out what to say to pique the interest of busy, high-level prospects when they get so many calls and emails from competitors.
  • Personalization is a big buzz word now. Caryn shares her opinions on what works and doesn’t work when it comes to crafting messages that open doors to your targeted prospects.
  • You will learn about the two important elements that have to do with sales that most business leaders get wrong.
  • We also discussed tips on how to hire the right Door Openers for your company.
  • Finally, we talked about a question that comes up all the time…at what point do you just give up on a prospect? Listen to the interview to hear what Caryn has to say about that important question.

Listen and enjoy the interview!

http://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.179/q7g.56b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WIS_CarynKopp_021819FinalEdits.mp3

 

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play   Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen to Episode 43 with Caryn above.

About Caryn:

Caryn Kopp is the Chief Door Opener® at Kopp Consulting, an Inc 5000 winner, recognized for the Door Opener® Service where they get their clients meetings with high level decision makers in almost every major company. A best-selling author, speaker and an expert in Business Development, Caryn can be seen in Inc., Forbes, Newsweek and is a faculty member of Verne Harnish’s Gazelles Growth Institute. Caryn is also the co-author of the best seller Biz Dev Done Right.

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Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform. Join them this March in Atlanta for 3 days of learning, networking, and inspiration at their annual Rainmaker conference! With over 100 speakers and 40 track sessions, their annual Women’s Breakfast and a performance from Grammy winning band Blues Traveler, this conference is not one to miss. Get your tickets today at rainmaker.salesloft.com.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Filed Under: blog, Women In Sales Tagged With: csuite, door opening, executive, Kopp Consulting, leadership, Prospecting, sales, selling

Hit the Bullseye: Know and Do the Most Meaningful Activities w/Kristina McMillan

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

In this episode, Barb talks to Kristina McMillan, VP of Research at TOPO about why it is so important to FOCUS on the right activities if you want to achieve the right sales results.

Focus – on the right activities that drive revenue goals – is always important no matter the time of year! Everyone knows that sellers need to prospect, qualify leads, demonstrate value and business acumen in their outreach to buyers, I kicked things off by asking Kristina what is happening in the market now that dictates what buyers want, so that sellers can better focus?

Sales activities should be driven by current data, trends and buyer expectations. With that in mind, Kristina shared her perspective and the research on the most meaningful revenue-generating activities & tactics reps need to focus their selling time on each and every day.

I asked Kristina what she thought the missteps were given that roughly 50% of sellers didn’t achieve quota in 2018.

As we think about how business and buyer expectations keep evolving, Kristina told me there certain critical skills that every seller should have and/or be developing to meet these evolving dynamics. Sales leaders should pay particular attention to this portion of the interview!

Kristina is teaming up with Jeremey Donovan, SalesLoft’s SVP of Sales Strategy and GM of the NYC office during a session at SalesLoft’s Rainmaker 2019 conference in Atlanta March 2019. You’ll hear what you can expect to when you attend the session. Kristina shared a couple of key takeaways. Meet Kristina and sit in on her session with Jeremey on Tuesday, March 12 @ 3:30pm for their presentation on Bullseye: Data-Driven Ways to Increase Pipeline. 

We closed the interview with a discussion about what Kristina’s business/sales journey been like for her. She shared her personal learning’s and guidance to other women in business and in sales.

Listen and enjoy and insightful, power packed interview!

BTW – Get your tickets for TOPO’s annual Summit happening April 17-18 in San Francisco.  Spend two days learning from the world’s best sales and marketing organizations. With over 60 sessions & workshops organized around six tracks, you’ll learn about the most important topics in revenue.  See the agenda and register before the summit sells out!

http://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.179/q7g.56b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/WIS_KristinaMcMillanFinal_030519.mp3

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play   Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen to Episode 42 with Kristina above.

About Kristina:

Kristina McMillan is the VP of Research at TOPO. She leads the analyst and consulting teams for all of TOPO’s practices. Her organization develops and delivers frameworks and best practices that help clients cultivate world-class marketing, sales development, and sales organizations. She has worked with hundreds of high-growth companies from early-stage start-ups to industry giants, such as Google, Oracle, HP, and more.

LinkedIn
Website

Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform. Join them this March in Atlanta for 3 days of learning, networking, and inspiration at their annual Rainmaker conference! With over 100 speakers and 40 track sessions, their annual Women’s Breakfast and a performance from Grammy winning band Blues Traveler, this conference is not one to miss. Get your tickets today at rainmaker.salesloft.com.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Filed Under: blog, Women In Sales Tagged With: ABM, account based, b2b, B2B sales, BDR, focus, go to market, inside sales, leadership, product, sales, sales productivity, SDR

Bringing Your Authentic Self to Sales

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

In this interview, I talked with Amanda Georgoff, Enterprise Sales Rep at SalesLoft. She has 15+ years of frontline experience selling software and services to CFOs, CMOs, Heads of Sales and other functional executives at F500 companies across her time at SalesLoft, Xactly and CEB (now Gartner).

Our topic focus was about bringing our personal authenticity to our interactions with future and current customers. Being real and being you opens the door to strong relationships and better sales conversations. Decision makers can feel the insincerity of the reps focused solely on achieving quota.

Here is what I wanted to know when I sat down to talk to Amanda:

How Amanda defines personal authenticity.

The moment that Amanda first realized being more authentic in her conversations with potential customers was important.

She told me about the manager who “coached” her how to relax the scripted version of herself – the person she thought she was supposed to be – in sales calls. Amanda talked about the questions her manager/coach asked her that led to her making the shift to being more authentic.

You’ll find out when you listen to the interview, how Amanda realized that putting herself in the buyer’s shoes and raising questions or possible concerns they might be thinking about became a competitive advantage for her.

More than a few training companies insist that we (sellers) should NEVER bring up a potential problem, issue or objection that the buyer might have before they do. Amanda and I talked about how this assumption is a myth that doesn’t work against you. Amanda shared examples of what really happens when you bring up issues or concerns you think the buyer might be having.

We also talked about helping buyers stay engaged during our sales meetings with them. Let’s face it, we all know that buyers sometimes check out during our sales calls. Amanda discusses her strategy for re-engaging buyers when this happens.

Finally, we closed by talking about the advice Amanda has for women in sales roles who worry about being themselves for fear they’ll be described as “soft”, “weak”, “touchy feely”, and as a result try to act more like the guys.

BTW – Meet up with Amanda, me, 100+ speakers, and over 1,500 sales professionals at the upcoming Rainmaker 2019 Conference in Atlanta in March. REGISTER HERE

As always, another insightful interview! Listen and enjoy!

http://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.179/q7g.56b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WIS_AmandaGeorgoff_SalesLoft2018-Final021219.mp3

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play   Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen to the recording above.

About Amanda:

Amanda Georgoff is an Enterprise Sales Rep at SalesLoft; she has 15+ years of frontline experience selling software and services to CFOs, CMOs, Heads of Sales and other functional executives at F500 companies across her time at SalesLoft, Xactly and CEB (now Gartner). Amanda is known for taking a consultative, insight-based approach to selling, consistently over-performs quota and has won multiple Presidents/Chairmans Club awards. She loves working directly with customers, adores her team, and was skeptical of using video in meetings before she tried it. Amanda resides in Austin, TX with her husband, Michael, her son Gray (2.5 years) and baby girl Hayes (5 months). Her favorite Queso is from Torchys Tacos.

Connect on LinkedIn
Website

Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform. Join them this March in Atlanta for 3 days of learning, networking, and inspiration at their annual Rainmaker conference! With over 100 speakers and 40 track sessions, their annual Women’s Breakfast and a performance from Grammy winning band Blues Traveler, this conference is not one to miss. Get your tickets today at rainmaker.salesloft.com.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Filed Under: blog, Women In Sales Tagged With: authenticity, Rainmaker 2019, sales, salesloft, selling, women

Getting to the Top 1%

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

In this interview, I talked with Cynthia Barnes who is recognized as one of the world’s most influential Women in Sales Thought Leaders. The former Top 1% saleswoman founded the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, the world’s only organization dedicated to helping its members reach the Top 1% and Dance on the Glass Ceiling™.

Cynthia is someone that I’ve admired for some time now. I admire her positive, fearless, can do attitude, and I very much appreciate all the work she does to support women in business.

When I talked with Cynthia I wanted to find out:

Why we need women-centric sales training and professional development.

What the biggest mistake Cynthia sees women sales professionals making.

What can managers and leaders can and must do to create a workplace where women in sales thrive.

Why Cynthia started started NAWSP (National Association of Women Sales Professionals.

Finally, we closed by talking about what Cynthia believes the future holds for women in sales and leadership roles.

Cynthia and her organization host #WomenInSales events around the country. To check out upcoming events in your city or one near one, check out the Ascend 2019 schedule HERE.

As always, another insightful interview! Listen and enjoy!

http://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.179/q7g.56b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/WIS_cynthiabarnes_121418_Final021419.mp3

Apple Podcasts  – Please subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Write a review for the podcast if you like the interviews.

Spotify  Stitcher  Google Play   Don’t use any of these platforms to listen? Listen to the recording above.

About Cynthia:

Cynthia Barnes who is recognized as one of the world’s most influential Women in Sales Thought Leaders. The former Top 1% saleswoman founded the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, the world’s only organization dedicated to helping its members reach the Top 1% and Dance on the Glass Ceiling™.

Cynthia’s unique understanding of what it takes for women in sales excel has made her a sought-after influencer on women-centric sales training and coaching, having appeared in over 250 major media outlets around the nation – including appearances in the Wall Street Journal.

Connect on LinkedIn
Website

Thanks to our Sponsors!

This podcast is presented by our Elite Sponsor, Microsoft. Corporate Vice President and Channel Chief Gavriella Schuster, along with other female leaders in the company, are driving for change, trying to bring more women into the technology industry. Gavriella and Microsoft are committed to giving “young women better role models and a stronger voice to all women.” You can hear more from Gavriella and other Microsoft leaders, on the Microsoft Partner Network podcast. Or visit partner.microsoft.com 

SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform. Join them this March in Atlanta for 3 days of learning, networking, and inspiration at their annual Rainmaker conference! With over 100 speakers and 40 track sessions, their annual Women’s Breakfast and a performance from Grammy winning band Blues Traveler, this conference is not one to miss. Get your tickets today at rainmaker.salesloft.com.

Thanks to our Media Sponsor. Women Sales Pros has a vision for more women in B2B sales and sales leadership roles where there are currently male-majority sales teams. We help educate companies on how to do this, and we champion women on what a professional sales career can be. We also showcase the very top women sales experts who are speakers, authors, consultants, trainers and coaches. People can sign up to get updates HERE and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @WomenSalesPros

Filed Under: blog, Women In Sales Tagged With: leadership, sales, sales leadership, selling, women

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