The Sales Podcast - #9 – “Hiring Sales People.”
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia. Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott and Robert discuss when and how to hire your sales person. Where to find them, and how to evaluate them in an interview process. Key areas we cover are:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
02:40 – Metrics to use when looking for a sales person.
03:20 – Importance of hiring lower level, or to go for a person who’ll build a sales department underneath them.
04:05 – You shouldn’t be a startup CEO if you’re afraid of selling, or don’t want to sell, also if you think it’s not important to do it yourself.
04:47 – Giving the sales person a framework of how it worked for you for them to be more effective.
07:25 – When to make your first hiring decision.
08:26 – The first sales related hire.
09:40 – Sales conversations a startup founder will have.
10:14 – Setting up general conversations around market/customer discovery.
10:36 – Intermediate steps companies can take before hiring a true VP of sales.
12:23 – When to go out and hire a sales person.
14:05 – Having a repeatable sales process.
14:35 – Diversify your sales person portfolio.
15:50 – The initial time period to judge and hire on, and how long to measure success.
16:18 – Reasons to get rid of a sales person.
20:00 – Finding ways to shorten the sales cycle.
21:48 – Where to source original candidates.
24:35 – The one most revealing question for a candidate and why?
27:25 – The types of people to look for.
28:22 – Behavioral assessments to do.
32:10 – How to structure compensation packages for sales people.
37:15 – How to know if the sales compensation program is the right one for you, or if you should make changes.
40:40 – How to make sure you structure compensation packages for team members to reach their goals.
Resources mentioned or related to this podcast
The Sales Podcast - #8 – “Implementation Planning.”
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia. Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott and Robert discuss the importance of discussing the implementation plan for your product with your prospective new client both early and often. Key areas we cover are:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
01:50 – What are implementation plans and how are they used.
02:15 – The four major stages of an enterprise sale.
03:13 – When to start thinking about implementation planning and start talking about it with a prospective client.
04:45 – What happens after a client says, “Yes.”
06:32 – How to use Implementation planning to help in the sales process in general.
11:00 – The pros and cons of implementation planning using different approaches.
16:08 – How a good implementation plan helps a purchaser deal with detractors within a company that may not want to implement your product.
18:30 – How to handle using third party implementation planning consultants, when you and your prospect have your own preferred processes.
20:58- How to avoid being blamed when a process doesn’t happen, by documenting your interactions.
21:43 – As a startup, you need to own the implementation process and avoid Outsourcing.
23:20 – Defining the success of your implementation plan.
27:00 – How to alleviate that fear of implementation planning.
32:38 – Having a checklist to help reduce risk.
34:27 – Software that helps with collaboration.
36:50 – The biggest piece of advice when it comes to implementations plans.
39:00 – How to think and qualify if a prospect is actually going to become a sale.
Resources mentioned or related to this podcast
Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci
SalesCast #7: Burning Sales Questions Pt. 2
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia. Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott hosts a webinar where participants ask their most burning sales question for both business to customer (B2C) and business to business (B2B or enterprise) markets. This episode is the second half of a Burning Sales Question webinar that SalesQualia hosts regularly. Key areas covered:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
1:50 – The main differences between selling a product versus a service and the benefits and disadvantages of each.
5:15 – The difficulty of selling a service based on money for time versus selling your service on a value for money model.
6:30 – The importance of finding ways to switch from selling a service a service to selling a product and how that change can help you scale your company.
7:30 – Methods for reinvigorating interest in your product when a prospective client starts to lose interest in the sale.
8:40 – How targeting the wrong buyer at a prospective company can cause a sale to stall because your “Company Hero” has been trying to sell your product internally to their own company.
10:50 – The method of triangulating information to help bring a stalled sale from crashing. How identifying the different people at a prospective client that will be involved in the purchasing decision of your product can help you keep interest in the sale and quickly identify stall points.
14:00 – How to use new information about your product to bring disinterested buyers back to the table.
16:55 - How a sales manager or executive handles their team in a world where marketing funnels are becoming more targeted and specific everyday.
18:30 – How to measure success of your sales people by identifying optimal close rates by the end of your sales cycle.
19:00 – How to hold sales people accountable when your sales cycle utilizes well developed marketing funnels that provide them with very developed leads.
20:30 – How to dissect a sales person’s target market to identify outside factors that could be contributing to their lack of success.
21:50 – Using closing techniques versus implementation planning to close a sale with a prospective client and how an implementation plan can help a salesperson identify overlooked factors and people (i.e. technical review, contract phase, payment issues, etc.).
24:00 – How to best compensate a sales person by using different tactics to focus your sales person on the sales model your company employs (i.e. service plans, back end selling, customer retention, etc.).
24:50 – Whatever incentive program you setup is the behavior you will instill in your sales people.
Resources Mentioned or Related to this Podcast
Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci
SalesCast #6: Burning Sales Questions Answered Pt. 1
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia. Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott hosts a webinar where participants ask their most burning sales question for both business to customer (B2C) and business to business (B2B or enterprise) markets. This episode is the first half of a Burning Sales Question webinar that SalesQualia hosts regularly. Key areas covered:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
2:00 – How do you uncover existing pain points with a prospective client?
3:00 – The Who, Why, How method of identifying buyers, markets, and how your product fits their needs.
5:10 – How to use the Challenger Sales Model to approach prospective clients using your own research to identify the pain points of their target market.
8:10 – What are the best sales tactics to compete with super powerful competitors like Facebook, Google, and other large established companies in your industry.
9:40 – How to work alongside established competitors by filling the gaps that their services provide to your prospective clients.
11:38 – How to generate leads for a new niche market that you believe your product would be a good fit for.
13:15 – How running a small experiment on prospective new customers in your target market can help you test value, gain powerful testimonials from a new customer base, and help your company better define your value proposition for new clients.
16:20 – How running small experiments in the enterprise sales world can help you scale from early adopters to the market at large.
17:30 – How to generate sales leads finding all the target companies and their relevant contacts within your target market.
18:10 – How to use industry conferences to generate leads and what to do with all those new leads.
21:00 – Ways to use LinkedIn and Virtual Assistants to make the most out of a conference and, most importantly, your time.
Resources Mentioned or Related to this Podcast
Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci
SalesCast #5: Setting Up Pilot Programs
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia! Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott and Robert discuss how to use pilot projects to sell to big companies as a startup by getting your foot in the door and setting yourself up to understand the logistics of selling to the big boys. Key areas we cover are:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
2:00 – Controlling the success of pilot projects by defining the metrics.
4:20 – Using pilot projects on smaller companies.
5:20 – How pilot projects establish you as a vendor at a large company.
6:20 – Pilot projects as a customer evaluation tool.
9:40 – Pilot projects versus selling the whole suite of features your product offers.
11:40 – Phased rollout of product from the pilot stage to aid with a smoother implementation.
13:00 – Avoiding the pitfalls of selling the entirety of an early stage product.
14:00 – Things to beware when piloting a project within a single department at a company.
15:45 – The benefits of a pilot project putting your company through the Master Services Agreement (MSA) process at a large company.
19:20 – How pilot projects help you understand all the necessary back office processes your company must go through to sell to a large company.
22:20 – The positives and negatives of running a pilot program.
Resources mentioned or related to this podcast
Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci
SalesCast #4: Leading the Big Meeting
This SalesCast is brought to you by, well, SalesQualia. Improve Sales Performance with:
In this episode, Scott and Robert discuss the different strategies and tactics to use in a meeting and demo with executives at a prospective client. Key areas covered:
We hope you enjoy the podcast and would greatly appreciate feedback! Any suggestions on future topics you would like to hear covered and/or podcast guests you’d like to hear would be great! Enjoy!
Podcast Notes
1:00 – Bringing the wrong people to a meeting: how to properly cast the participants you bring with you.
2:45 – How to start a meeting by utilizing good research ahead of time.
5:20 – Getting background information and vetting out ideas during your informal start.
6:00 – Procedure for taking the start of the meeting from the informal stage to the formal.
7:15 – Don’t give handouts! How to guarantee focus stays on yourself.
8:45 – Successfully demoing a product while maintaining interest from your audience.
9:45 – Establishing that it’s not a demo, it’s a conversation.
10:45 – Using a round robin to find out the ideas and questions your audience want covered.
12:45 – Allocating and prioritizing time on the right people during a meeting.
15:30 – Handling side conversations and avoiding the rabbit hole of impertinent questions.
19:45 – How to make the transition from demoing your product to moving your sale forward.
22:20 – Dealing with objections and obstacles: knowing when broach them yourself versus letting them occur naturally.
25:30 – What to do when the end of your demo is greeted by silence.
27:45 – How to close out the meeting by maintaining control.
30:45 – Making sure you push the sale forward by establishing action items.
33:40 – Approaching the procurement process and finding out how much interest you’ve actually generated.
37:20 – Number one piece of advice for meetings and demos.
38:40 – Wrap up.