In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I was interviewed by Adam Springer. 

Adam has been the first salesperson for three startups, successfully growing to $1 Million ARR in under a year then scaling it out to $5 million.

He specializes in B2B complex sales and has helped over 100 companies create sales systems to get to and above $5 million in revenue.

Adam hosts the Startup Sales podcast which speaks with Founders, VC’s globally to create actionable insights for creating early-stage sales processes.

Some of the topics that Adam and I discussed in this episode are:

• Where to start if you’re an early-stage sales team?
• How and where to look for your first 10-paying customers?
• 2/2 metrics – Friction and Value: How many values can you add to a target customer and how many frictions it takes to implement your solution.
• When to hire your first salesperson?
• What are the biggest mistakes that Startups make when hiring?
• What are the problems when you’re hiring Mr. & Mrs. Rolodex? 

Links & Resources

Startup Sales: startupsales.io

Adam Springer on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/b2b-startup-sales-expert

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GROW. Because that’s what your competitors are doing.

Over these past 6 weeks, I’ve coached and talked with over 100 B2B #startups across the health care, retail, manufacturing, construction, and financial sectors about their sales and selling strategy.

“Selling to hospitals is impossible…”

Two of our clients have signed 5- and 6-figure contracts in the past two weeks.

“Retail is dying.”

One client is on-boarding 7 new customers in the next 2 months. Two more teams selling to large-scale retailers joined our program because of the opportunities they're seeing.

“Manufacturers are getting hammered.”

Two teams have added customers, including a Fortune 500, to help with production systems and payments.

“I’ve got to cut back my sales team.”

One client just hired a salesperson to take over an entire customer segment and another has reps hitting 150% of quota.

These teams are no different than any other startup in this market, except for one thing…

They made the decision to #grow – to resist “ride it out" as a strategy.

The global economy is $80+ trillion. Your market NEEDS you now more than ever. Find them & help them.

#growth #startupselling

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I was interviewed by Joseph Fung. 

Joseph is the CEO of Uvaro, a tech sales career accelerator, and of Kiite, a sales enablement platform purpose-built to provide sales teams with the information they need when they need it. 

As a graduate of the University of Waterloo’s Computer Engineering program, Joseph is a repeat Founder & CEO with multiple successful exits. He speaks frequently on the topics of sales leadership, diversity, and corporate social responsibility. 

He is an active early-stage investor who ensures that the majority of his investments are into women-led companies. Joseph also sits on the boards of Communitech, the Golden Triangle Angel Network, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

Some of the topics that Joseph and I discussed in this episode are:

• How I first got into sales 
• My transition to product management
• My biggest surprise in tech 
• My journey as a sales advisor

Links & Resources

Kiite - kiite.ai

Uvaro: uvaro.com

Podcast: uvaro.com/podcast

Joseph Fung on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/josephfung

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Latane Conant.

Latané was instrumental in aligning sales and marketing in her previous position as CMO of Appirio, resulting in 5x more effective field marketing programs and a 300% increase in inbound leads.

Now as the Chief Market Officer of 6sense, Latané empowers revenue teams to compete and win in the age of account-based buying through 6sense’s solution — allowing them to uncover, prioritize, and engage with demand by uniting one common, AI-powered platform. 

This allows them to know everything they need to know and do anything they need to do, ultimately generating 40% more opportunities, closing deals 2x faster, and winning 2x more often. 

Some of the topics that Latane and I discussed in this episode are:

• “The Dark Funnel” – The activity and research your buyers are doing before contacting the seller.
• Identifying which accounts are “in-market”.
• “New Inbound” – Get clear on the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), the buyer’s intent, and focusing your marketing and sales effort on the account that are “in-pocket”.
• “In-pocket” – problem aware and solution aware. 
• The importance of demand capture versus demand gen.
• The value card and how you create content for the different buyers.
• The importance of using video and how you can create quick content. 
• How to leverage AI to create an amazing customer experience.
• The importance of orchestrating to create a positive experience for your buyer.
• The importance of the “next best action” with your prospects.
• Racial inequality and improvements we can all be making when it comes to diversity within our teams, customers, and community.

Links & Resources

Rapid Adoption. Immediate Impact: 6sense.com

Latane on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/latane-conant

Manifesto for the Future of B2B Customer Engagement: 

hub.6sense.com/breakthroughplus/manifesto-for-the-future-of-b2b-customer-engagement-latane-conant-cmo-of-6sense

SV Academy: sv.academy

[book] White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism  www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/0807047414

[assessment] Impact of Unconscious Bias 

trailhead.salesforce.com/content/learn/modules/workplace_equality_inclusion_challenges

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This is an uncomfortable conversation, and that's why I'm doing it. 

Over the past two weeks, I've been watching and supporting the anti-racism protests across the world and embarking on my own personal journey of awareness and analysis about myself, my personal life and my company on the topic of structural racism, white supremacy and anti-blackness.

It's been scary and revealing.

In this episode, I'm sharing the details of my personal analysis because my guess is that you can relate to one or many of the experiences and environments in which I've lived and worked over the past 40+ years of my life.

I'm sharing some personal stories about growing up in South Jersey, getting arrested, joining a college fraternity that was unabashedly racist, and my observations working in the education, real estate, mortgage, and technology industries.

This isn't a proclamation or a statement – it's simply my way to share ideas about my own personal analysis and action in the hope that it will contribute to you and others in your own analysis and action.

Please share your ideas with me as a comment wherever you're listening to the show, or by sending an email to me at scott@salesqualia.com.

This isn't a later problem anymore. This is a now problem that all of us need to work on together.

#blacklivesmatter #blacksintech #blackcommunity #startups #leadership #listening 

Links & Resources:

Barbara J. Love & Liberatory Consciousness: www.barbarajlove.com

Ericka Hines: www.everylevelleads.com

Rachel Rodgers & Hello Seven's Town Hall Replay: www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=884985288645916 

The Anti-Racist Small Business Pledge: https://mk0hellosevencogaqta.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Small-Business-Pledge.pdf

Doing more, doing better – Overcoming the racial divide [LinkedIn post with links to people and resources: 

www.linkedin.com/pulse/doing-more-better-overcoming-racial-divide-scott-sambucci

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Carson Conant.

Carson Conant is the CEO and Founder of Chicago-based sales enablement solution provider Mediafly.

Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, Carson is no stranger to the challenges and rewards of building a company from the ground up and assembling a brilliant team to successfully execute on his vision. 

Under Carson’s leadership, Mediafly has been recognized as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for five consecutive years, one of Inc.’s Best Workplaces of 2018, and a Best Place to Work by Crain’s Chicago Business. Mediafly’s software is currently leveraged by top Fortune 500 companies including PepsiCo, MillerCoors, Disney, and Goldman Sachs.

Some of the topics that Carson and I discussed in this episode are:

• What does sales enablement mean?
• The difference between marketing and sales content.
• When and how to use content in your sales process.
• The lessons from marketing and its functions in an organization.
• When to update your content whether it is a video presentation, case study, or powerpoints.
• When is the best time to establish a sales-enablement role in your organization? 

Links & Resources

Mediafly: www.mediafly.com

The Evolved Selling Institute: www.evolvedselling.com

Carson Conant on LinkedIn: ww.linkedin.com/in/carsonconant

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Aaron Krall.

Aaron Krall helps SaaS companies drive more leads, convert more users, and accelerate growth. His proven, done-for-you systems and frameworks have increased conversions, automated sales, and reduced churn for companies like Reply.io and IBM.

Aaron also runs the largest SaaS community in the world: SaaS Growth Hacks on Facebook. 

He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Natalie, his son, Arlo, and dog, Penny.

Some of the topics that Aaron and I discussed in this episode are:

• Self-Serve vs Sales – What are the types of products that work with a self-serve system versus the types of products that require a sale.
• Selling vs Marketing – When & how should you be marketing and how should you be selling?
• What makes a good marketing strategy?
• Internal vs External Realities – How you can use your internal realities as part of your marketing strategy.
• What are key metrics that you should be looking at in your Marketing?
• The importance of looking at your metrics on a weekly basis and identifying the impact areas within the business.

Links & Resources

Aarons Linkedin profile: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronkrall

SaaS Growth Hacks: www.facebook.com/groups/SaaSgrowthhacking

Understanding Your Customer’s Desired Outcome: sixteenventures.com/customer-success-desired-outcome

People & Products mentioned:

Bench: www.bench.co

Sujan Patel: sujanpatel.com

Mailshake: www.mailshake.com

ClickFunnels: www.clickfunnels.com

Superhuman: https://superhuman.com/

Russell Brunson: www.russellbrunson.com/hi

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed CEO at Chorus, Jim Benton.

Jim joined Chorus.ai as CEO to bring Conversation Intelligence, the fastest-growing category in sales technology, to the masses. 

As a former Co-Founder of ClearSlide and CEO of Apollo, Benton’s career is defined by revenue generation and applying the voice of the customer. 

Chorus will continue delivering solutions to improve the consistency and quality of the customer experience, quota attainment, and shortening new-hire onboarding for high-growth teams, like those of Zoom and MongoDB.

Some of the topics that Jim and I discussed in this episode are:

• Sales Productivity – connect rates and follow up meetings resulting from the initial conversation.
• How many times have phrases like “COVID” come up in your conversation?
• Tactical changes that can be made to the way that you’re operating your sales team. 
• How the work of a salesperson has changed as we enter into this new way of selling.
• The importance of getting clear on the problems and who the buyers are on the other side of the table.
• The importance of bringing both sides of the executive team to the meeting.
• The importance of authenticity. Give your team permission to be human in their conversation.
• Jim’s experience cold-emailing Steve Jobs and how he got a deal between Ticket Master and Apple.

Links & Resources

Chorus.ai: www.chorus.ai

ClearSlide: www.clearslide.com

Jim Benton on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/benton

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Laura Janusik.

Laura Janusik is a dynamic professor, trainer, researcher, speaker, and business consultant. Laura has won numerous research and teaching awards from different professional and academic associations, and she is one of the world’s leading experts in teaching and training listening.

All of Laura’s work is supported by the most current research, which she shares and applies in training, coaching, and consulting. Her approach to communication, both oral and written, is practical and other-centered. Her specialty areas include listening cognitions and metacognitions, healthcare, pedagogy, intercultural listening, and interpersonal communication.   

She is a past president of the International Listening Association, and she is published both nationally and internationally.  

Laura uses the ECHO Listening Profile™ in much of her work with individuals and teams. The ECHO is a scientifically validated instrument to measure an individual or team’s listening dominance. With this tool, listening blind spots are quickly identified, and Laura helps individuals and teams listen from their blind spots so that they can increase shared understanding, make sure everyone is working towards the same goal at the same time and decreases costs by reducing meeting times as well as rework.

 She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Maryland at College Park and an MBA from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, MO.

Some of the topics that Laura and I discussed in this episode are:

• What does it mean to have a listening strategy.
• What is the process for listening and how does the brain work.
• The difference between listening and hearing.
• Cognitive pieces of the brain and how does listening work.
• How we understand the information that we hear and how do we process it from a response or no response standpoint.
• The four listening habits – Connective, Reflective, Analytical, and Conceptual.
• Defining and identifying which of those might be your dominant listening habit.
• Signal that you can use to identify other people’s listening habits to understand their type of communicating.

Links & Resources

Laura Janusik on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/laurajanusikphd

ECHO Listening Intelligence: www.echolistening.com

Interested in learning more? Feel free to contact Laura at LJanusik@gmail.com for a free consultation.

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I was interviewed by Business Coach and Mentor, Jason Everett.

Jason Everett is one of those rare individuals that have the ability to harness and leverage technology like a second nature superpower and use if for online teaching, training, and education. 

As the founder of several successful international digital training and technology companies, he is a powerhouse of information and can pack weeks worth of technology learning into an easily digestible short format class that makes learning it a pleasure.

 He breaks things down into simple to implement an easy step by step approach no matter what level of “tech nerd” you are. He’s has generated millions in sales as a result of his videos and courses and has been asked to speak in Japan, Peru, Paris, Egypt and countless other counties to share his passion for digital education.

 He has always been a pioneer and out-front leader in the virtual and real-world of all things digital.

If you are looking to upskill your team or kick your tech-knowledge to the next level then bring in Jason to share his knowledge and passion – he will leave you feeling charged up and ready to take on this new world over video. 

Some of the topics that Jason and I discussed in this episode are:

• The idea that everyone is running their own Ultra Marathon right now – and it’s a race without a finish line in sight. 
• Hair Salon Owners doing virtual consults, doorstep beauty kit drop-offs & give-yourself-a-haircut videos. 
• Making 10 calls every day to the books as a Hair Salon Owner.
• Action. Ownership. Leadership.

Links & Resources

Jason Everett: www.linkedin.com/in/jasoneverett

High Performance Salon: www.facebook.com/highperformancesalon

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed best-selling author, and coach, Brian Robinson.

Brian Robinson is a sales and marketing expert, best-selling author, and coach. He has worked for some of the best-known companies in the world, including Coca-Cola USA and Johnson & Johnson.

Upon leaving his corporate career, he helped launch a successful startup where he was the first person in the history of the industry to sell more than one million dollars in business in twelve months—entirely by phone.

He has over two decades of in-the-trenches, battle-tested, face-to-face, and phone-presentation experience that can benefit virtually anyone, from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurial ventures.

Brian is the author of the Amazon #1 Best-Seller, THE SELLING FORMULA: 5 Steps for Instant Sales Improvement.

Brian and his wife Cindy reside in the Oklahoma City area and have eight children - which could be the topic of an entire podcast in and of itself!

Some of the topics that Brian and I discussed in this episode are:

• THE SELLING FORMULA: 5 Steps for Instant Sales Improvement: Connect, Interview, Present, Share, and Close.
• The “Why” behind each of the five steps.
• The importance of having a pre-built list of questions in your sales calls.
•  The importance of using fact-finding and emotional types of questions in your sales call.
• Why is it necessary to set the agenda for every meeting? 
• Interview as if you are a reporter.
• Pricing strategies and ways to share your price.
• The importance of including and creating a guarantee with your products and presenting it early in your sales process.

Links & Resources

The Selling Formula (audio): brianrobinsonbook.com/free-audio-download

The Selling Formula: thesellingformula.com

Brian Robinson: linkedin.com/in/brianwrobinson

Calfussman: www.calfussman.com

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I was interviewed by Neil Fontenot. 

Neil is an entrepreneurial and versatile technology sales leader, skilled at exceeding quotas and maximizing revenue.

His experience in Fortune 100 Financial Services, FinTech, InsureTech, AI, and SaaS startups combined with storytelling talent allows him to convey value, ROI, and close deals. 

As a leader of people, Neil is not afraid to roll up his sleeves and get my hands dirty to find and address any challenge a business may face.

Some of the topics that Neil and I discussed in this episode are:

• What’s been working for me in this new environment?
• What have been the biggest changes in my day and life with COVID?
• The challenges and adjustments when you’re a parent with a child now home from school?
• How do you stay positive and find progress in daily life?
• The importance of discipline and exercise every day.
• Doing your best and accepting that you’re doing the best that you can.
• What’s changed in my life and what new activities have I done in the past two months?
• What are the sales strategies we’re recommending to our clients?
• The importance of setting small goals every day, celebrating those wins, and then keeping yourself moving.
• Why every person that’s struggling should ask for help?

Links & Resources

Neil Fontenot on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/neilfontenot

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed CEO of Chili Piper, Nicolas Vandenberghe.

Nicolas started his career by selling newspapers in the streets of Paris in high school, studied Maths at Ecole Polytechnique, and then received his MBA from Stanford GSB. 

He then started and sold 2 tech companies with up to 65 employees and $11M in revenues, and also ran sales for a $2B telecom firm negotiating billion-dollar deals with companies like Google.

After having his 3rd tech startup put out of business by Salesforce, Nicolas rebranded his company “Floating Apps” to “Chili Piper” and then self-funded with no remaining employees. He used the “Bull’s Eye” marketing strategy to close in-person the first $1 million in revenues himself with companies like Intuit, Square, Twilio, and Greenhouse in under 12 months.

Some of the topics that Nicolas and I discussed in this episode are:

• How to reduce friction in the sales process.
• The importance of a “Thank You!” page for requesting demos or other pieces of information from your page.
• How quickly you can get someone from ‘Interested’ to ‘booking the meeting’.
• The importance of selling a product that does not exist and getting your customers to prepay you.
• The importance of having a quick response rate in order to take advantage of the people that are interested in your product.
• Call times and conversion rate – How sales can be lost due to slow response times.
• The importance of reference points in making decisions when it comes to pricing and anchoring your customers to what your product does and how it can solve their problems.

Links & Resources

Chili Piper: www.chilipiper.com

Nicolas Vandenberghe: www.linkedin.com/in/nvandenberghe

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed entrepreneur and Founder of Lead Cookie and Content Allies, Jake Jorgovan.

Lead Cookie helps B2B sales teams generate leads through LinkedIn prospecting. They manage your LinkedIn account and start conversations between you and your target customers.

Content Allies cater to Events associations and Consulting Firms where they create Podcasts, Articles, White Papers, and Social Content. 

Some of the topics that Jake and I discussed in this episode are:

• How to use LinkedIn for engagement and lead generation.
• Why you should think about your engagement campaign in “small segments”.
• The 3 factors of relevancy on LinkedIn.
• Technical factors such as the number of LinkedIn connection requests you can send on a daily basis.
• Sales Navigator and how it is designed for sales research and other sales activity.
• The 4 step process in your engagement to identify if whether the person you are connecting with is a lead or not.
• How can the leads that are not qualified be useful to build your LinkedIn network?
• Tips that will make you feel confident that ‘now’ is the right time to do prospecting.

Links & Resources

Jake Jorgovan: www.linkedin.com/in/jakejorgovan

Lead Cookie: www.leadcookie.com

Content Allies: contentallies.com

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Ep. 82: Role Playing & Assessments in Your Sales Hiring Process: An interview with Aspireship's Christine Rogers 

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed President and COO of Aspireship, Christine Rogers.

Christine is a seasoned sales and marketing leader with over 15 years of recruiting, hiring, training, and managing high-performing sales teams at Infusionsoft and Booker by MindBody to name a few.  

Currently, she's the President and COO of Aspireship, a platform designed to match high potential sales candidates with great SaaS companies looking to hire. They do this through an exclusive network of candidates who prove themselves through their training and assessment process, and also by providing tools to help companies better discover talent within their existing network. 

Some of the topics that Christine and I discussed in this episode are:

• “Should I be hiring now?”
• Bloat: Looking at ways to cut expenses.
• Taking steps forward to start building your business again.
• Getting clear on what are the real metrics for hiring.
• The importance of having a process for hiring and having alignment around culture, mission, and values.
• How do we access which salespeople are good versus the ones that look good on paper?
• How do we get the salespeople to role play – in this way, we can access their ability to sell. This gives your candidates an option to disqualify themselves.
• How to make decisions when it comes to moving forward with a candidate or not.

Links & Resources

Aspireship: aspireship.com

Christine Rogers on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christinerogers2

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed author and CEO, Chris Spurvey.

After consciously choosing entrepreneurship as a means to create a better life for his family, Chris realized that negative beliefs about sales were holding him back from taking his ventures to the next level. He saw this as a major hurdle to not only his businesses but the businesses of virtually every other entrepreneur. 

Chris spearheaded the growth of Plato Consulting to the point it was acquired by one of the largest management consulting firms in the world (KPMG). In the process, he sold over $300 million in consulting services.

Following the acquisition, Chris turned his focus to helping other “non-sales sellers” find a way to grow their revenue in a consistent, stress-free manner.

Chris’s newest venture is Dockridge Digital, a technology consulting and product development company focusing on helping businesses leverage digital to serve their customers.

Some of the topics that Chris and I discussed in this episode are:

• Chris’s background and his transition from the mindset “sales is something you do to people/being pushy” to “sales is a place for problem-solving”
• The general approach to sales – sales is not about doing something to someone, sales is about curiosity
• Diagnostic conversation – How to be related and being more relevant
• How do we sell in our current environment
• How to problem-solve for our customers

Links & Resources

LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/chrisspurvey

Website:www.chrisspurvey.com

It's time to sell on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2R6vxSs

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Selling Strategies in a Volatile Market

1. Don’t believe everything you think.
2. Relationships first.
3. There’s no such thing “All” and “Everyone”
4. Christmas was 90 days ago…
5. Your Prospects don’t panic-buy, so don’t panic-sell
6. Customers buy Outcomes, and simple steps create stable outcomes.
7. Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.
8. Be the Mayor of your town.
9. People will borrow certainty from the person who has the most of it in the room.
10. Your customer is on their Hero’s Journey. If you found this useful, please Like, Comment & Share ASAP.

#enterprisesales #gofarther #startupsales #sales #saassales #salespipeline #salesplan #selling

I should be on a plane to Florida for a father-son weekend.

One client runs a live event every April that’s now going virtual. Other clients planned on conferences for lead gen & meetings. We run a live event in May and I’ve got a decision to make very, very soon.

What’s the opportunity in all of this?

For the one client, it’s the chance to build a whole new system of delivering value and serving her community.

For others, it’s a forcing function to create new lead gen systems through outbound, virtual events & podcasts.

For my business, it’s an opportunity for our international teams to join the event when we go virtual.

This morning, I made breakfast for my son and took him to school. This afternoon, I’ll pick him up from jui-jitsu and head to the skate park. 

In just ten years, he’ll be out on his own and I’ll be looking to plan a father-son weekend with him.

I’ll do a trail run on Saturday. My wife & I can do date night.

Right now, I’m enjoying a stellar coffee at my local shop instead of the lukewarm airplane swill.

Disruptions suck, but they can offer a gift. 

We can’t control what happens to us. We can control how we respond to it.  

#GoFarther #Leadership #startups

Elevate Yourself with a Strong Peer Group –– Startup Lessons from the Trail

A huge challenge in running a startup is the isolation that goes with it – building strategies, figuring out to implement them, identifying blind spots & mistakes to avoid.

This weekend’s trail run reminded me why we all need a strong peer group.

My friends Kelly & Katy invited me to join them for a run in “the Canyons” – a challenging section of the Western States 100 course. Both of them are doing this year’s race too. Kelly’s done it 3x, including two sub-24 hour finishes & Katy did it in 2014.

I learned all kinds of lessons I otherwise might not have learned. Small lessons –poison oak is already growing along the trail – and big lessons – the first mile of a 1500’ climb from Volcano Creek to Michigan Bluff is the worst part.

They pushed me to go one more mile before turning around to the car, adding an extra 10% to the day I wouldn’t have done on my own.

I considered the run to be a "bonus" – a jumpstart in my training, but we met at least 10 runners out there also in this year's race, including a guy who flew from Pennsylvania to check out the trail. My "extra" was just table stakes.

Elevate your thinking. Speed your learning. Find your peer group.

No more $10 ice cream sandwiches.

It’s been two weeks since I finished the Tarawera 100 – a 100-mile ultramarathon in New Zealand. 

Usually the emotional overwhelm of completing a race like this brings me to tears at the finish line. That didn’t happen at Tarawera and since then, I’ve been struggling to figure out why.

Meanwhile, I’ve been giving myself permission to go lax on my diet. Friday night was the pinnacle – I ate more than an entire pizza, downed two large IPAs, then capped off the gluttony with a $10 ice cream sandwich.

Do you know how much ice cream and cookie goes into a $10 ice cream sandwich? 

My next race is on June 27th – the Western States 100, the world's oldest 100-mile trail race. More than 10,000 runners try to land one of the 369 available spots every year, and I got a spot in the 2020 race.

Not only do I want to cross the finish line, but I want to earn the silver buckle that goes with completing the race in under 24 hours.  I’ve never finished a 100-mile race in under 24 hours. The Western States is one of the toughest races in the world – 18,000’ of elevation gain,, yet I know I’m capable of reaching this goal.

After Tarawera, I told myself I’d go easy for a few weeks and start training sometime in March. I’d eat what I wanted. Train less. Give myself a break.

But I can’t. I spent Saturday morning mapping out the next four months of my life, work and training. I’ve been hitting the garage the past week and feeling strong. On Sunday, I paced a local 13.1-mile race, and felt good the whole way.

I’ve got four months to the race start and no excuses about why I can’t start my training now. Today. On February 24th. So I am. Right now./

I’m plenty proud of finishing the Tarawera 100, but what I realized is that was once a peak accomplishment is now my foundation, my starting point for the next big thing. It’s time to break through the next ceiling, to elevate my mindset and personal expectations because I know that I can. 

All of the work, all of the training, all of the endurance races that I’ve done over the past 12 years is all just foundation to get me here, to a place where I can seize this opportunity ahead of me over the next four months. The only person holding me back is me.

This is my public accountability to every single person reading this post. My goal is to run the last 1/4 mile around the track of Placer High School knowing that I’ve done it – to see a finishing time of 23:59 or better. To cross the finish line at 4:59AM or sooner on Sunday, June 28 because I know that I can, if I put in the right work and the right effort in the next four months.

Let’s do this.

#GoFarther 

I’m 10 days from my next ultra-marathon — the Tarawera 100. The locals refer to it as “the miler…”

I’m so close to the starting line, and in the final weeks before a race, I get tired – I’m tired of training. I’m tired of early mornings. I’m tired of my diet. I’m tired of centering my life around one day in the calendar.

That’s when it’s most important to stay disciplined, to stay on track, to do the work. I didn't want to do the work this morning. I searched for reasons why I should skip this morning's run, but anything I thought of was just another excuse. So I got up, got out and did the work.

It’s the same with your startup. You’ve been pushing towards the next product launch, or the big conference, or that implementation with your “logo customer.”

It’s easy to get tired. You SHOULD be tired – you’ve been pushing for weeks and months to get there, so it’s natural to want to let down or back off a little and hope you can coast.

That’s exactly when you have to look at what you must to do to see it through, and usually that’s simply focusing on the task at hand – to just do the work.

Do the work. Go Farther.

Zach Stein joined me on my podcast, describing the decision-making frameworks he used as CEO at Osmo. (Check the comments below for a link to the episode.)

We talked about “making one decision to save a thousand” that Greg McKeown detailed in his book, *Essentialism.*

This week, I decided to skip all Super Bowl media - no ESPN, no news, no sports talk radio. I’ll be in New Zealand teaching a sales workshop when the game's on. If I can’t watch it, why do I care? 

You’ve got hundreds of decisions to make everyday – how to spend your time, which features to add, who to hire, how to price that one deal....

While many decisions are bespoke, many can be grouped so that if you make one decision, it saves a hundred later.

1. What if you decided to only check email 3x/day – at 10am, 2pm & 6pm?  

Think about how many rabbit holes you follow b/c you’re constantly checking your phone.

2. What if you decided to stop sending proposals when prospects ask for them?  

Think about how much time and energy is wasted writing them then chasing prospects, only to hear – “Ping me in …”

3. What if you decided to do 1:1s with every team member this week? 

Think how would that change your relationship abd what you’d learn about their work.

Having Time vs Making Time: A Lesson from the Trail

I’m two weeks from the Tarawera 100-miler and I’m asked all the time –

“How to do have the time to train for ultramarathons?”

I don’t HAVE the time. I MAKE the time – every week, every day.

Today, I'm on the 5:50am train to spend the day at the Alchemist Accelerator Demo Day, so making time meant crawling out to the garage at 4am for a workout.

Every day, it’s the same - making time in between everything else that I gotta do – clients, workshops, picking up my son from jiu-jitsu, swapping kitchen duties with my wife. 

Making time means bolting out the door at 6am on Saturdays for a quick 10 miles. 

Making time means deadlifts at 7am on Sunday morning. 

Making time means running hills in Bernal Heights at 4am when I’m in SF for the night.

Making time means unapologetically blocking time on a Tuesday afternoon for midday run.

I get it – the investor meetings… product releases… candidate interviews… 

You never have the time to sell, but your company, and customers, need you to sell. Stop waiting until you have the time to sell, and make the time instead.

Type WORKSHEET below & I’ll send you our “10-Hour Sales Week Planner.” It’ll help you make the time. Because that’s what you gotta do.

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Refract Co-Founder, Richard Smith.

Richard has over ten years of sales experience working for and building high activity and scalable outbound software sales teams. He has been a regular contributor to leading sales content sites such as Hubspot and SalesHacker and was nominated as a Top 50 SaaS Sales Leader in the UK. 

Richard is passionate about fixing the broken mindset towards sales coaching and helping salespeople become the very best they can be.

Some of the topics that Richard and I discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of product demo as a catalyst in your sales process.
• Why is it important to qualify your leads.
• Understanding when it is fitting to have a smaller pipeline. 
• The importance of being vigilant when qualifying your leads.
• Keeping yourself accountable when it comes to selling your product.

Links & Resources

Richard on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-refract

Refract website:  www.refract.ai

The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million:

www.amazon.com/Sales-Acceleration-Formula-Technology-Inbound/dp/1119047072 

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Refract Co-Founder, Richard Smith.

Richard has over ten years of sales experience working for and building high activity and scalable outbound software sales teams. He has been a regular contributor to leading sales content sites such as Hubspot and SalesHacker and was nominated as a Top 50 SaaS Sales Leader in the UK. 

Richard is passionate about fixing the broken mindset to sales coaching and helping salespeople become the very best they can be.

Some of the topics that Richard and I discussed in this episode are:

• The importance of having a meaningful conversation that therefore creates a positive experience for your customer.
• Focus the discovery call on where the sales are won or lost.
• Create a checklist from your experience with leading indicators for good sales conversation.
• The need for approval that salespeople have and how it can work against them.
• Tips to create an environment where you can ask tough questions and lower the resistance in the sale.
• How to use the simplistic questions in your discovery call.
• Why the phrase ‘I think’ can negatively influence you in your sales.
• Frameworks to analyze your sales conversation to improve and make your own sales conversation better.

Links & Resources

Richard on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-smith-refract

Refract website: www.refract.ai

The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million:

www.amazon.com/Sales-Acceleration-Formula-Technology-Inbound/dp/1119047072 

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia.com

Thanks so much for listening! Tell a friend or ten about The Startup Selling Show, and please leave a review wherever you’re listening to the show.