focus

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

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!

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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.

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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.

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No is a Complete Sentence

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

For a long time, I’ve struggled with saying no to people. Hard to say if it is simply my natural inclination to want to help out, or my ego feeling puffed up because someone wants my help. It could be a little of both. Either way, saying yes to the wrong activities has very often gotten me in trouble.

The curious thing is that I’m not alone. I ran a quick web search on the phrase “hard time saying no” and in .85 seconds, I receive 450,000,000 results. Clearly, I’m not the only one with a problem.

For years I have pondered why I have difficulty saying no. After all, I have friends and colleagues who are masters of no, never giving it a second thought. Not me. Uttering the word used to eat at me. I felt guilty. I felt like a jerk. It stressed me out to cancel something when I should never have agreed to it in the first place. Worse is when I’d honor the commitment but then be completely ticked off at myself for wasting my time.

Without learning to say “no”, here are just a few of the things that are likely to happen:

Your priorities become secondary and you may end up never getting to them.
Acquaintances burn time you can spend on your goals, your hobbies or with friends and family.
Burn out.
Lack of focus by allowing yourself to be pulled in competing directions.
There is no time left to say “yes” to the really important opportunities that come along.

I don’t remember exactly where I heard it, but it is said that, “No is a complete sentence.” As simple as that sounds, it still feels a little harsh to me. What I’ve done instead is thought about the various requests I’ve received through the years and have a plan for what I’ll say when the next ask comes along.

Here are three examples…

If you want a “pick your brain” meeting with me, be prepared to send me a written agenda and the clear purpose for the meeting. NOTE: this stops about 99% of all requests. Should I agree to meet in person, it will cost you more than a cheap lunch. Dinner at an upscale restaurant and a really nice bottle of red will get you in the neighborhood of my typical consulting fee.

Want to meet to talk about how we might “partner”? A first meeting in person isn’t in the cards, but I may agree to a 15-minute exploratory call. You’ll need to give me a compelling reason why 15-minutes is worth it. You can start with the agenda.

If you want me to speak at your conference, you need to pay my fee. I’ve racked up plenty of “visibility” thank you very much. When I do say yes, don’t make ridiculous demands on my time. I don’t send my presentations weeks in advance.

Going forward…

At the start of the year, I blogged about going big, big, big, which will be tough to do unless I remain selfishly focused on what matters most to me. I want to encourage you to be selfish too.

Looking back on the first month of 2014, I’m pleased to say that I’ve done a great job turning down requests that don’t fit my purpose and plan. Go Barb! It isn’t all perfect though. I have some egg on my face for agreeing to at least one project that sounded great at first, but ultimately wasn’t a fit for me. It is embarrassing to back out.

Simon Sinek asks, “What’s your why?” I’m asking, “What’s your no?”

Are You Taking Right Action?

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

Conversation continues about the economy, the economic stimulus package, people losing jobs, higher taxes and on and on and on. Frankly, it’s depressing, and I don’t want to engage in the discussion.

I am a huge fan of Wallace Wattles and his landmark work –The Science of Getting Rich. He reminds us that “We must guard our speech. We must never speak of ourselves, our affairs or anything else in a discouraged or discouraging way.” The starting point for success begins with minding our attitude. Are you aware of what you are thinking and saying? You need to be! Energy flows where attention goes and negative thoughts and behavior will draw those same results to you.

So what can you do, in addition to keeping a lock on your thoughts? Take right action.

Right action is an essential ingredient to achieving what you want. It starts with a clear vision of where you are headed, faith that you can achieve your goals, gratitude for knowing you’ve already achieved them coupled with taking action NOW.

Far too many people sit around wishing and dreaming but they do absolutely nothing. I’m a Law of Attraction believer. I believe that we create our own reality, but notice that the last 5 letters of attraction are ACTION. Even if we don’t know “exactly” what action to take, it is important to do something.

I often encounter people who stop themselves from achieving success because they don’t know HOW it will happen. But our job isn’t to necessarily know HOW something will unfold. We just have to get moving. As we do, more will be revealed.

Moving forward in faith that you will achieve success leads to a chance meeting, a phone call from someone you’ve lost touch with, an article shows up that is related to your desire…you just never know what will come your way when you get into action.

Get out of the “gloom and doom” mindset! Remember that taking action will lead you in the direction of our goals. Stay open to new possibilities, have faith that success will happen and stay out of your own way. If you do, success takes care of itself.

Great Habits Lead to Successful Sales

By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

People ask me often what makes a great sales person. Is it their personality? Is it their knowledge of the sales process? Is it their attitude? Is it their habits? What is it really? The answer – simple as it is – is all of these things and more. Our habits, what we actually focus our time and attention on day after day, is probably one of the single biggest things that will lead to either success or failure. A long-time fan of Jack Canfield and his work, I decided to post his recent newsletter article on habits.

Where are Your Habits Leading You?
by Jack Canfield

You are an accumulation of your habits. From how you get out of bed, how you shower, how you dress, how you walk, sit, and talk, how you respond to the world, how you act in front of others, and how you think; you’re living out your habits.

Habits are necessary. They free up your mind so you can concentrate on how to survive day to day. You don’t have to think about how to drive your car so you can be on the lookout for danger while you are driving. You don’t have to think about how to walk so you can concentrate on where you’re going.

Unfortunately, habits can also keep you locked in self-destructive patterns, which will limit your success. To become successful, you will need to drop bad habits and develop new ones that are in line with the life you want to live.

People don’t suddenly appear in the life they want to live… their habits determine their outcome!

What are the habits you have that are keeping you from achieving your goals?

Really be honest with yourself here… Are you always running late? Do you return phone calls within 24 hours? Do you get enough sleep? Do you follow through on your promises? Do you plan out your day?

Imagine what your life would be like if all your habits were their productive counterparts!

What would your life be like if you ate healthy meals, exercised and got enough sleep? What if you saved your money, stopped using credit cards and paid cash for everything? What if you stopped procrastinating, overcame your fears, and began networking with people in your field? Would your life be different? I bet it would!

So, my suggested action step for you is to write down some productive habits you could adopt and visualize in your life, step two is to ‘act as if’ you were living these new habits right now!

I’d like to help you get moving toward creating more successful habits, so I’d recommend you develop four of your new success habits each year, one for each quarter.

Once you pick the new habit you’re ready to adopt, next you’ll want to create a method that will support your new habit.

Here are some ideas… You could write it down on a card that you keep with you and read several times a day. You could make it a part of your daily visualization. You could also enlist the help of an accountability partner who has habits to change, or work with a personal coach who can keep you on track.

It’s important to make a 100% commitment to your new habit, so be specific about the steps that you’re willing to take in order to drop an old habit and adopt a new one. Don’t be vague about how you will change your habits. Spell it out for yourself so you can recognize situations that motivate you to act out your new habit.

Just developing four new habits a year will dramatically shift your life to be more in line with your vision. And the more in line it becomes, the easier the other habits are to replace because your perspective is shifting and you can see more clearly how your old habits aren’t serving you anymore.

Make the decision. Make the commitment. Then watch your new, positive life unfold!

I’ll see you in another two weeks in the next edition of Success Strategies. In the meantime, take the time to implement just one of the strategies discussed in today’s issue.

Jack Canfield, America’s #1 Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

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