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Link Out to Build Trust and Build Your Business with Leslie Grossman

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In this episode, I talked with Leslie Grossman, author of the book Link Out: How to Turn Your Network into a Chain of Lasting Connections.

So, I was curious. We all know LinkedIn but I started by asking Leslie what she meant by Link Out.

We also talked about:

When it comes to trust, the most effective ways to build trust with a customer or client.

How many people find typical networking ineffective in making sales, yet they force themselves to do it. Leslie tells me why she thinks that happens.

The most important communication skill you need to master to be successful in sales.

You will also learn how to build your own entourage, which Leslie delivered a TEDx talk about.

Finally, I closed by asking Leslie to share her advice to women looking to move into leadership roles.

Enjoy the interview!

About Leslie:

Leslie Grossman is an award-winning entrepreneur who advises, trains and speaks on business development, leadership, and marketing, Her most recent book Link Out: How To Turn Your Network into a Chain of Lasting Connectors (Wiley) puts a spotlight on building trusted relationships to achieve your goals.

She is the founder of Leslie Grossman Leadership and speaks throughout the world about how trusted relationships transform your business and career.  After leading a marketing agency for 12 years,  Leslie created the Women’s Leadership Exchange, the first national conference series to propel the businesses of women business owners and professionals reaching more than 65,000 women through more than 100 live events and online programs.  Leslie is an executive coach and Chair for Vistage International, the largest peer advisory board organization in the world.   She is on the adjunct faculty for The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and coaches entrepreneurs and women executives to break-through to the top by building relationships and transforming habits that dilute their leadership potential.  Grossman’s previous book SELLsation! How Companies Can Capture Today’s Hottest Market: Women Business Owners and Executives made her a popular speaker on business development for companies like Aetna, Axa, NorthWestern Mutual,  IBM, Best Buy, American Express, and IKEA.

Connect on LinkedIn and Twitter 

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Treat Your Operations Like a Product with Ellen Kindley

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Today, in this segment of the Women in Sales Leadership podcast, I’m talking with Ellen Kindley is a dynamic revenue operations leader at QASymphony specializing in sales process, data management & analytics, strategy, and sales tech.

Ellen believes that sales operations leaders should think about internal operational improvements as if you are building a product with features. Your salespeople are essentially your customers, and everything done in revenue operations is geared to support them in success. Operations should act as a product owner – creating a road map where key stakeholders can collaborate on which projects (product features) to prioritize and why.

We discussed:

How revenue operations are different from traditional sales operations.

The overarching goals of a revenue operations team.

How to best organize the business initiatives you need to prioritize.

How to stay in tune with what’s happening on the sales floor and bring that back into your operational roadmap.

Ideas for cross collaboration with stakeholders across your business.

Some of the common operational challenges solved with the approach that Ellen advocates.

Enjoy the interview!

About Ellen:

Ellen Kindley is a dynamic revenue operations leader at QASymphony specializing in sales process, data management & analytics, strategy, and sales tech.

Ellen seeks to enable growth by facilitating strategic planning, infrastructure, and overall sales excellence. Ellen is passionate about laying the foundation on which SaaS startups can scale and grow – always striving to be the driving force for productivity improvement.

Starting at QASymphony in 2014, first as a consultant and then as a full-time employee in 2015, Ellen has successfully set the stage for hyper growth. Every step is data driven as she sets initiatives and priorities, evaluates gaps and executes improvements. Ellen’s goal every day is to allow sales management and individual contributors to focus solely on revenue generating activities.

QASymphony’s software testing and QA tools help companies create better software by improving speed, efficiency, and collaboration during the testing lifecycle.

Connect with Ellen on LinkedIn and Twitter 

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Leading Sales Teams with Katie Early

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I talked with Katie Early, a sales leader at HubSpot, about her strategies for leading SDR/BDR teams to consistent sales success. Katie first talked to me about how she got started in a career in sales and what she loves about the profession.

We then talked about:

How Katie made the transition from an individual contributor sales role into a sales leadership role and the surprises she encountered and the lessons she learned.

Katie then shared her guidance for women who’d like to make the same transition into a leadership position.

Successfully leading teams to exceed monthly and annual sales targets on a consistent basis isn’t always easy. Katie shared some of her strategies that help her lead her team to ongoing success.

We discussed the importance of hiring right, coaching, ongoing training.

How SDR/BDR roles are important in selling success and Katie’s thoughts on how those front-line roles are evolving.

Katie recently moved into a new leadership role and made a move to Dublin. She told me about her new role and what led her to tackle this new challenge.

Enjoy the interview!

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

HubSpot CRM makes it easy to organize, track, and grow your pipeline. And it’s free. Forever! I’m a Hubspot CRM user, and I love it. You should give it a try right NOW!

About Katie:

Katie Early leads the Corporate Sales Team for HubSpot in EMEA, focusing on growing the HubSpot’s presence with large scale organizations. She started her sales career with HubSpot 6 years ago, where she worked as an individual contributor before moving into Sales Management in North America, and then later moving to the Dublin office for her current role.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn and Twitter

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How Buyers Buy in Today’s Market with Mary Kay Hauer

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Are today’s buyers really different from the buyers of a few years ago? In many ways, yes and Mary Kay Hauer of MK Associates also shared her perspective on how some things aren’t really all that different in today’s market.

Questions we tackled include:

The difficulty many sellers have in selling to today’s buyers.

Some of the strategies a seller can use to avoid these difficulties.

Ideas on how to best connect with a potential buyer who often ignores salespeople.

How salespeople can increase their win rates if they truly understand the drivers behind why buyers make their buying decisions.

Enjoy the interview!

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

HubSpot CRM makes it easy to organize, track, and grow your pipeline. And it’s free. Forever! I’m a Hubspot CRM user, and I love it. You should give it a try right NOW!

About Mary Kay:

Mary Kay Hauer of MKH Associates whose personal mission is “Creating passionate salespeople who love their job as much as she does”. When you love what you do, and you are good at it, customers will want to buy from you. Her goal is to transition good people into passionate sales people who help their customers be more successful…and make good money doing just that.

Working with large companies such as Microsoft, HP, Kyocera, Southern California Edison, and Lands’ End to small start-up companies, Mary Kay has helped organizations apply the Solution Selling®  principles, best practices and a framework that develops and enables salespeople to reach success with passion.

Connect with Mary Kay on LinkedIn 

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Hiring Top Sales Talent and Building Inclusive Sales Cultures with Katie Ng-Mak

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Hiring the right people with the right skills is critical to sales organizations. In this episode, I talk with Katie Ng-Mak from HubSpot who shares her thoughts on hiring top talent and building a culture of inclusiveness.

As we kicked off, Katie told me what led her into a sales career and what she loves about the profession. She then shared her advice to women in sales who want to move into leadership roles.

According to the research, hiring is a top priority for many sales organizations. You’ll hear how Katie believes that hiring right translates into achieving sales results.

We also discussed:

What the ideal sales persona looks like today and how that persona will evolve as we move into the future.

The role diversity and inclusiveness plays in creating a sales team of A-players.

Strategies for sales managers who may discover after hiring someone that they aren’t a fit for the role after all.

The most important thing Katie has learned about hiring top talent.

Enjoy the interview!

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

HubSpot CRM makes it easy to organize, track, and grow your pipeline. And it’s free. Forever! I’m a Hubspot CRM user, and I love it. You should give it a try right NOW!

About Katie:

Katie Ng-Mak is a Sales Director at HubSpot where she manages a 65-person sales organization and is in charge of the company’s North America channel business. She developed her sales career at HubSpot where she started as a rep 8 years ago before moving on to sales management and sales leadership. Prior to HubSpot, she worked on Wall Street and studied at the Harvard Business School and Columbia University.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn and Twitter

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How To Be A Sales Ops Rockstar with Mary Ford, SecureWorks

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In this segment of the Women in Sales Leadership series, I talked with Mary Ford, Director, Sales Strategy and Operations at SecureWorks.

The sales operations team is often overlooked for the value that they bring to the sales force and a company’s business overall. Mary shared her views on why might happen and what you can do about it. After Mary let me know how she got started in sales, we talked about:

Mary’s definition of Sales Operations.

How to develop and evolve the Sales Ops team inside your company.

How the Sales Operations function has evolved over time.

Mary’s suggestions for becoming a Sales Ops Rockstar.

Where the future of Sales Operations may be headed.

Finally, Mary shared her advice for women looking to move into leadership roles.

Enjoy the interview!

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

HubSpot CRM makes it easy to organize, track, and grow your pipeline. And it’s free. Forever! I’m a Hubspot CRM user, and I love it. You should give it a try right NOW!

About Mary:

Mary Ford currently serves as Director, Sales Strategy and Operations for SecureWorks.

Previously, she was a member of the leadership team at Cbeyond, taking the company from start-up to a publicly traded, $450 million leading Cloud and Managed services provider to SMBs. She held a number of roles leading marketing, sales operations and learning and development functions.

Ford serves as chair of the Board of the Atlanta Track Club and as a board member for the Technology Association of Georgia Sales Leadership Society.

Ford is a graduate of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2014 and serves in a variety of other volunteer roles.  She holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and aanMA degree in Telecommunications from George Washington University.

Connect with Mary on LinkedIn 

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Social Selling Strategies with Sebastien Denes, SAP

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In this episode, I talk with Sebastien Denes, Senior Director SAP Digital Business Services. He talked with me about how he incorporates social selling strategies into his sales process.

Sebastien began using LinkedIn about 10 years ago but said he really realized the power of social about 5 years ago when he moved to take a position in China. It was his way of staying connected with his colleagues in Europe. He also uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator to share content, engage with prospective buyers, stay in touch with customer and partners, and to plan for his sales calls. He also loves the educational value that LinkedIn offers.

Finally, we talked about Sebastien’s keys to success and tips for engaging buyers on LinkedIn each day.

About Sebastien:

Sebastien Denes is a Senior Director and Head of RunSAP Center of Expertise APJ within the Digital Business Services organization at SAP. In this role, Sebastien leads the delivery of Run/Operations Services, overseeing a team of 120 professionals and managing the annual Run Services contribution.

His team advises CIO/CTO in various industries such as Banking/Insurance, E-commerce/Retail, Manufacturing, Oil & Gas, Utilities and Telecom.

Connect with Sebastien on LinkedIn and Twitter

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Social Selling Strategies with Federico Winer, SAP

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In this episode, I talk with Federico Winer, Head of Entertainment Industries EMEA at SAP. He talked with me about how he incorporates social selling strategies into his sales process.

Fede got started some years ago when he realized the power and importance of building an online brand. He uses LinkedIn and LinkedIn Sales Navigator to share content, engage with prospective buyers and customers and plan for his sales calls.

You’ll hear in the interview that Fede believes salespeople should be human and authentic. After all, people buy from people. He also thinks that doing your homework before sales conversations is important but that you shouldn’t be overly scripted.

Finally, we talked about Fede’s keys to success using social media to drive sales opportunities.

Enjoy the interview!

About Federico:

Federico Winer has developed international business for media, sports and entertainment firms since the start of his career, with a firm understanding of how humanities and IT coexist. In his role as Head of Entertainment Industries for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at SAP, Fede is responsible for the generation of Entertainment industry revenue and pipeline. He is a trusted industry advisor for both SAP customers as well as SAP Account Executives across sectors like lotteries, betting houses, casinos, amusement parks, trade shows, game publishers, and museums.

Connect with Federico on LinkedIn and Twitter

 

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Running an Effective Discovery Call with Tonni Bennet, Terminus

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In this Women in Sales Leadership interview, you’ll hear tips and strategies for running an effective sales discovery call, but first I asked Tonni about how she got into sales and what she loves about the profession.

Then we discussed:

How Tonni has prepared her sales team to run effective discovery calls.

How you earn trust and credibility quickly in the call to allow for effective discovery.

Tips for sellers who struggle to keep a prospect engaged throughout the discovery conversation.

Traits that women have that make them effective at discovery during sales meetings.

Tips for keeping discovery going throughout the sales process.

What comes first? Demo or discovery call?

Tonni’s advice for women would are thinking about how to move into a leadership role.

Enjoy the interview!

This episode is sponsored by Hubspot.

HubSpot CRM makes it easy to organize, track, and grow your pipeline. And it’s free. Forever! I’m a Hubspot CRM user, and I love it. You should give it a try right NOW!

About Tonni:

Tonni Bennett is the Vice President of Sales at Terminus, a leader in account-based marketing software. She has scaled the sales team to 29 members over the past 2 years. (Terminus was ranked #2 at the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Pacesetter Awards as a top 5 fastest growing company in Atlanta.) Before Terminus she was a top producing sales professional at Pardot, PeopleMatter and SalesLoft.

Connect with Tonni on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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