It's been nearly two weeks since I ran the Western States 100 – a 100-mile ultramarathon from Olympic Village in the Sierra Nevadas to Auburn, CA. 

Every day since then, I've been reflecting back on the race  – what I accomplished, what I learned, and how I prepared for the oldest, and arguably most prestigious, ultramarathon in the world.

Here is the first installment of these Startup Selling Lessons from the Trail, including –

- How to leverage experts,

- The single-biggest factor in the pursuit of BHAGs, and

- Removing variables from the journey through planning, preparation and visualization.

BTW... If you're a startup founder and want some help with your journey from idea to impact, there's a chance the team and I here at SalesQualia can help.

Shoot me an email to scottsambucci@salesqualia.com with the word "JOURNEY" and we can hop on a call to look at your situation, brainstorm a few ideas and see if or how we can help you ramp up and scale up your sales.

#startups #GoFarther #startupselling

Listen to the full podcast here on LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6819332826907967488/

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These are final two pre-race "Startups are Ultramarathons: Lessons from the Trail" leading up to the 2021 Western States 100 ultramarathon. 

I'll get to the full-on race report in a series of future posts... 

If you've missed the previous three segments, you can find them here on LinkedIn or the Startup Selling Podcast.

#7: Incrementalism

To do hard things, to do what others, and yourself might feel is impossible, the leap from here to there is too big.  Sure, you started your company with a big vision,  your sights set on the impact you want to make in your market, for your customers.  As Bill Gates famously said –

"Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years.”

If you focus on the giant leap from where you are today, to where you want to go, you can end up feeling overwhelmed, and stuck running through endless "what ifs..." and crippled by inaction. Instead, you've got to focus on wins and learnings. 

Every experience is an opportunity to win or learn – to build the foundation to the Big Future that you see.

#8: The Journey is the Joy

Remember, you chose this.  The struggle is guaranteed; success is not.  The ups and downs are part of the way – you HAVE to have downs – that's part of doing hard things. 

A couple years ago, when I was frustrated with a few things in my business, my wife told me – "You have hard problems because they're the only ones left – you've solved all the easy ones already."

Remember to take time to detach and reset. Remember that you're out there, every day, doing hard things.  Celebrate the wins, and be thankful. 

Besides, you could always go back to your day job...

#GoFarther #startups

Listen to the full podcast here on LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6816472018494521344/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

It's less than 3 days from the race start – the Western States 100 – an ultra-marathon from Olympic Valley in the Sierra Nevadas to Auburn, CA near the Sacramento Valley.

I didn't sleep well two nights ago – waking up at 1:30am with some pre-race anxiety. That's normal, and expected. Having a few nerves is good – it keeps me focused on every last detail.

That brings me to today's Startup Selling Lessons from the Trail – making the most of every training opportunity these past six months. Covering every last detail in my final preparation.

I'm past all of the training and tune-ups. It's all about logistics, packing and crew instructions. (I've written an 8-page manual just for my pacers and crew. (I'll drop a link to the PDF in the comments if you're interested...)

Most of all for you, as you build, grow and run your startup, you've got to do the same – make the most of every minute, every opportunity. 

You've got to cover every last detail. 

You've got to seek and find the unknown unknowns to reduce risk and improve your chances of success.

This installment of "Startups are Ultramarathons – Lessons from the Trail" is about just that.

BTW... If you think you want some help with your startup's sales process – how to make the most of your opportunities and execute on every details, shoot me an email to scottsambucci@salesqualia.com with the word "OPPORTUNITY".

We'll grab a time to talk about your situation, work on a few ideas and figure out if or how we can help.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.

On June 26th at 5 am, the gun went off and I took my first step in the Western States 100 – a 100.2 mile ultra-marathon from Olympic Valley, CA to Auburn, CA. 

The course included more than 18,000' of elevation climb and daytime temperatures of more than 100 degrees.

I officially started training on Jan 4th – six months of daily effort – more than 1200 miles of running, strength-training 3-4x/week, and monitoring every calorie I consume. 

In running these ultra-marathons, I've learned a few lessons that translate to running a startup. 

I shared two Lessons from the Trail about how startups are like ultra-marathons –  

1/ Make hard things routine 

2/ Prepare to train

Today, I'm sharing a couple more...

While every day and every week feels like a sprint, the path to make a lasting impact for your customers is a long journey. 

Stay focused, stay committed.

Listen to the full podcast here on LinkedIn: 

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6811630331184107520/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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Startups are ultramarathons, even though most of us are sprinting every day –

Sprinting to the next product release...

Sprinting to nail down the next sale...

Sprinting to get to the next funding round...

Even though you're sprinting every day, it's important to remember that the path you chose is a long journey.

Over the past six months, I've been training for the Western States 100 – the oldest, arguably most prestigious ultramarathon in the world. Over 7000 people wanted one of the 369 spots available.

I'm a week away from the starting line, and over the past six months, I've learned a lot about myself, what's possible and how to break ceilings I didn't think I could break.

My goal is not just to finish the race, but to finish in under 24 hours to earn the Silver Buckle Award.  It's going to be close, and I'll execute my best race, and even then I might now make it.

The struggle is guaranteed; success is not.

I'm sharing a few "Lessons from the Trail" – how running and building a startup is just like training and running an ultramarathon.

Here's the first installment.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Alexine Mudawar & Gabrielle Blackwell.

Who is Alexine Mudawar?

Carrying 8+ years of SaaS sales experience, Alexine is backed by numerous President’s Club awards, quarterly high achievement recognitions, and a consistent track record of surpassing quota. 

Outside of her day-to-day sales role, She is an Adjunct Professor and teaches sales courses for Aspireship, Victory Lap, and Re: Work Training. 

She’s a champion for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and has founded two women-focused Employee Resource Groups. She currently serves as Co-Founder of the Women in Sales Club alongside Gabrielle Blackwell.

Who is Gabrielle Blackwell?

Gabrielle Blackwell, also known as The Sales Development SaaStress, started her career in as a sales development representative and has since then held positions as an Account Executive, Sales Enablement Manager, and has now focused her career pursuits on Sales Development leadership. 

She is currently leading a Sales Development team at revenue intelligence platform, Gong.io and co-hosts Women in Sales Club, a Clubhouse event focused on enabling, empowering, and promoting women within the sales profession.

Some of the key topics and questions that we covered in this podcast are:

• Community questioning the inner critic 
• Owning your voice
• Personal branding 
• The stigma of sales
• Tokenization of an individual 
• How The Women in Sales Club came into existence
• How Alexine and Gabrielle came to working together
• Core issues such as race, gender, sexual preference, and other diversity markers
• The importance of being empathetic
• Understanding what it means to be a woman in the workplace
• Strategies of how men can do better to support women

Links and Resources:

LinkedIn page: www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-sales-club

Clubhouse club: www.joinclubhouse.com/club/womeninsales

Alexine on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alexine-mudawar

Gabrielle on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielleblackwell

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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 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.

Demos are where sales opportunities go to die.

Unless you've got a Prospecting Partnering System in your #sales process.

It's fun finding new leads, diving into problems, and talking about what's possible with your help.

Demos – Nothing more fun than showing off your product to an eager prospect.

Proposals may not be fun to write, but there's the excitement & anticipation of landing your next big customer.

Contracts? Some sellers really dig this part of the sale – they get jazzed when it's time to get down to negotiate and talk numbers.

Then there's deployment – where all the work over the past 3 or 6 or 12 months finally comes to fruition.

But you know what's not fun?

Project management.

Chasing the IT guy for data file access. 

Finding the risk officer whose only job seems to be telling vendors she can't approve the purchase. 

Wrangling the compliance team's checklist. 

Quibbling with procurement about their request for audited financial statements.

It's never easy navigating the quagmire of internal bureaucracy. 

But it gets a whole lot easier (and maybe even a little more fun) if you've partnered with your prospect and built a mutual action plan where you've assigned teams, tasks, and timelines to every step along the way from demo to implementation.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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“Demo” should NEVER be a stage in your sales process.

In fact, your entire sales process should minimize your product as much as possible. 

Yes, really.

That’s why Demo Design is one of the 9 Sales Accelerators.

If you're running your demos the wrong way, I bet every one ends with three things ––

1/ Lots of applause

2/ A request for a proposal

3/ Three months of “Chase the Prospect”

Am I right?

But, if you build your Demo Design the right way, your demos will be short, focused, and even better, move you quickly into conversations about IMPLEMENTATION.

Demo Design is NOT about your product – it’s about your PROCESS.

In this video, I’ll show you why you MUST establish a Demo Design system and more importantly, why your demos should have almost nothing to do with your product.

If you want some help with your Demo Design process or any of the 9 Sales Accelerators, send me a DM or an email – scott@salesqualia.com.

Let’s do this.

Listen to the LinkedIn LIVE here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6717478141436284928/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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3 Things I'm excited about (including lots of running and baby goats...)

#1:  The last stretch of training for the Western States 100. I've got a 50-mile trail run on  Saturday, and another 22 on Monday. 

#2: We're now proud owners of a baby goat. 

My wife spent her nights this week building their pen. Because she's cool like that.

#3: I'm teaching a LIVE Training on Thurs, June 3rd – "Your Q4 Sales Start Now."

I'm teaching 5 tactics to put to work in the next 6 weeks that will help you nail your 2021 number.

Here is the registration link: https://salesqualia.com/webinar/

2 People to follow –

Check out Jason Bay and Meghann Misiak. Both are AWESOME at their craft. They coach our clients here in our Startup Selling Coaching program and ALWAYS deliver.

1 Parting Thought –

If you're in the US, Monday is Memorial Day. Take a day off - no email, no texts, no nothing. You need a break. Your family will appreciate it. 

The company won't fail if you take 24 hours to just be.

Listen to the LinkedIn LIVE here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6804211947190464512/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

"I guess I'll follow up with them..."

If that's your action plan for a deal that's gone dark or a lead that won't reply, you're doing it all wrong.

The top 3 synonyms for "follow" are PURSUE, SEEK & CHASE.

Is that how you want to run your sales process? 

Change the mindset. 

Eliminate "follow up" from your vocabulary.

Get SPECIFIC. Be PRECISE.

Think in terms of VALUE, ACTION & EDUCATION.

Got an inbound that won't reply after the demo request? 

Add value instead of hammering away to get a call on the books.

Got a post-demo prospect that tells you – "Follow up in a couple of weeks..."?

Assert yourself with action.

Got a proposal that's gone dark? 

(Sending the proposal was your first mistake, but that's for another post...)

Create opportunities to share new information.

Sales requires you to lead your prospects. 

Stop the "follow up" and take action.

If you want to get more specific and more precise with your startup's sales process, DM me or comment👇 'ACTION' 👇 and let's have a quick chat to see if or how I can help.

Listen to the LinkedIn LIVE here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6800822266474180608/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

Hiring is a two-sided market – the hiring company and the candidates. 

After closing a Series A, a founder needs to get serious about building their sales team. That first sales team will either galvanize growth from "start up" to "scale up," or drag the company into startup purgatory.

Founders have to sell candidates on their company, market, and product. Any good salesperson will need relative assurance, that while they're taking a risk at a startup, the upside potential outweighs the career risk.

Here's a 5-factor rubric designed for BOTH founders and top talent to assess and validate a startup's readiness and attractiveness to hiring top sales talent. 

(Notice I said TOP sales talent...)

1/ People – A new hire isn't joining a company – they're joining a tribe.  Who's in the tribe now and how will the candidate fit?

2/ Problem – What's the mission and vision of the startup? Is the problem interesting? Will solving it make an impact?

3/ Product – Is the product sellable? What's the roadmap and what other options are available to the market?

4/ Process – Is there a sales process beyond founder magic?

5/ Professional Development – How can the candidate grow as the company grows?

Listen to the full podcast here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6785599256104370176/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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 a recent podcast, I shared how CONSISTENCY is a key principle in my ultra-running, business, and life in general.  

Three (3) strategies that have helped me are...

1/ Schedule Everything

I mean EVERYTHING, so I can see what time is actually available in my day & where I can trim or trash tasks that are low-value negative value.

I add my Saturday trail runs to my wife's calendar. She sends me calendar invites for when she's horseback riding or flying so that we always know what each other planning around these important personal activities where we want to be consistent.

2/ Communicate & Plan a Reward

Tell your team and your family WHY it's important that you do that thing you want to do consistently.

Get some skin in the game – if you hit your target, you'll do an ice cream parlor crawl, or you'll buy a new camping gear to use this summer.

3/ Start Small. Quick wins. Build momentum. 

Say your goal is to hit a target of 100 outbound touches per day. 

Commit to 30 minutes a day for the first week, then build up to 45 minutes, then to 60 minutes.  

Start by nailing down 10/day. If you try to go from 0 to 100, even if you hit 90/day, then you'll feel like you failed. Focus on what you learned to improve the next day or week.

Listen to the full podcast here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6785276717863878656/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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 David Priemer. 

Like most of us, David never thought he'd end up in sales! He started his career tinkering with test tubes and differential equations as an award-winning research scientist before spending the next 20 years leading top-performing sales teams at high-growth technology companies including Salesforce, where he was the Vice President of Commercial Sales and creator of the Sales Leadership Academy program.

Today, as the Founder and Chief Sales Scientist of Cerebral Selling, David's unique science and empathy-based approaches to driving revenue and talent growth have been published in the Harvard Business Review as well as Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Inc. magazines. 

Often referred to as the "Sales Professor", David is also the author of the bestselling book, “Sell The Way You Buy”, and an Adjunct Professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University. David holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Atmospheric Science from York University and a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. 

When he's not thinking about Sales, David loves to cook, write, and spend quality family time with his wife and three daughters.

Some of the key topics that we talked about are:

• The importance of how you position or phrase a question.
• How to communicate with our prospects in a way that they are thinking about.
• Always talk about sales from a customer standpoint.
• The importance of polarization in your messaging.
• Understanding your customer’s feelings during the buying process.
• Giving the Disney experience to your prospects and customers.
• The difference between value and ROI.

Links & Resources

Website: cerebralselling.com

Book: cerebralselling.com/book

Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/CerebralSelling

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cerebralselling

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.

I'm reading "Trillion Dollar Coach" by Eric Schmidt about Bill Campbell – a coach to some of the top Silicon Valley executives – including Steve Jobs and Schmidt himself.

This week, Tim Ferriss shared his interview with George Mumford – a person most people don't know. But you know the athletes he coached – including Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant.

If you're a startup founder, reading that these top performers all had coaches should push you to get a coach ASAP if you don't have one already.

But... Are you coachable?

In 10 years as a startup coach, I've met 2000+ startup CEOs & coached hundreds of founders & teams.

I'm always surprised to find that many people just aren't coachable, especially those that could use it most, and I've found that there five (5) traits that make for a coachable person.

1/ Readiness to Learn: Being ready to focus and make the time to do the work.

2/ Honesty & Humility: The willingness to look for gaps & blind spots.

3/ Getting Uncomfortable: It's awkward learning anything new, but it's the only path to growth is getting comfortable being uncomfortable.

4/ Acknowledgement, Acceptance & Action

5/ Implementing = Learning: No progress happens without implementation. That's where the real growth happens.

___

If you feel like you’re coachable, and you think you're ready for some help growing yourself and taking your company to new levels, send an email to scottsambucci@salesqualia.com with the word "COACHABLE" in the subject line, and let's talk.

I'm ready. Are you?

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6790002883812225024/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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 Amy Volas. 

With more than $100MM in revenue sold and named one of Sales Hacker's Most Dynamic Women In Sales, Amy is a sales fanatic turned entrepreneur. 

She was bitten by the startup bug many moons ago and couldn't imagine spending her time anywhere else. 

Amy created Avenue Talent Partners to help with the tremendous task of growing startups through some of their most valuable assets - sales leaders and enterprise salespeople.

Links & Resources

Amy on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/amyvolas

(Website) Avenue Talent Partners: www.avenuetalentpartners.com

(Blog) Avenue Talent Partners: avenuetalentpartners.com/blog

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.

CONSISTENCY is a principle that's made the biggest difference in my ultra-running training and my work. 

Consistency means putting in the work. Every. Day. No matter what.

(BTW... If you want a hand with this, send an email to scottsambucci@salesqualia.com with the word  *CONSISTENCY*  and I'll share how I can help.)

On the trail, I have a mantra – "Relentless Forward Progress."

You might think this only applies to starting up the next 2000' climb, or coercing yourself to the next aid station 12 miles away at 3:30am.

But Relentless Forward Progress is most important when it comes to the CONSISTENCY of effort of EVERY DAY.

It's about doing the work that needs to be done, before there's urgency. Before the next action becomes critical.

Consistency is doing your 20 outreaches every day to fill your #sales funnel.

Consistency is keeping your daily stand-ups & team meetings, even when they're not convenient. Consistency is doing quarterly performance reviews so that your team knows exactly where they're doing well and how they can improve.

Consistency is investing the time every week to learn even if that means telling a prospect that Thursday is already booked. (Don't worry – you can have the meeting on Friday. They'll be fine with it...)

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6784875184848482304/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

When it's 3am and you can't sleep, what do you do?

I had a choice – I could lay awake in bed, frustrated that I'm not sleeping and letting all of the thoughts racing through my mind take over, or I could treat it as an opportunity to do something.

On Monday, I woke up at 12:30am, my head spinning with all of the projects we're working on – building sales plans with clients, interviewing teams that want to join our program, upgrading our entire client delivery platform, training our new team member, setting up the next round of live events...

Obstacle or Opportunity?

When you have a team member that's not performing...

Obstacle or Opportunity?

When you have a logjam of deals in the pipeline that are moving...

Obstacle or Opportunity?

When the product release is behind...

Obstacle or Opportunity?

I get it – some obstacles are so big, so gnarly, that it feels impossible to find the opportunity it's offering you.

But it's there if you stay calm, persevere and look for what's good about your situation.

Whatever the obstacle you've got today, or this week, or this month, know that you've got this.

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6780466944576507905/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

BluBrry | Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes | Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

Just because a lead requests a demo, doesn't mean they get a demo.  They have to deserve it.

And it's your job to qualify every lead. 

You wouldn't you walk into a doctor's office and say – "Show me your medicines."

Diagnosing your problem a necessary step before that doctor would know know if or how they could help.

Your sales leads are no different. You have to qualify them to know if or how you can help them.

If you don't, you'll end up playing a game "Demo-Proposal-Chase" with every prospect.

When you do qualify your leads, when you know their critical business issue, and when you can show them how you can solve their problem, you'll get more CLARITY, CONTROL & CONFIDENCE in your sales process.

That's why Lead Qualification is one of the 9 Sales Accelerators - it'll help you move faster with the right leads, and avoid wasting days or weeks or months with the wrong leads.

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6717121319198093312/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

Deezer | Amazon | Stitcher | Spotify | iTunes| Soundcloud | SalesQualia

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.

I know you're frustrated and tired. We all are.

A year ago, I packed my bags for a two-week New Zealand trip to teach a workshop, run a 100-mile ultramarathon then tour the north island in a camper van.

A year ago we had the first confirmed COVID case in the US.

Since then, we've had lockdowns that forced us to change how we live our lives. We experienced #BlackLivesMatter protests in the Summer, the elections in the Fall and the Capitol riots, and the transfer of power this month.

We're all exhausted. We'd all love a day without at least one Zoom call. We all want our kids to go back to school. The holidays feel like they never happened. Worst of all, by now, many of us have lost a loved one because of COVID.

Back in March and April, everyone was kind and understanding about working from home – kids in the background, juggling schedules, and distractions galore.

Life hasn't changed for most of us since then.

So when your prospect is a no-show, your clients are slow to pay, and your coworkers just can't seem to get that project done, remember that everyone is just like you – kids at home, partners still looking for a job, and mourning loved ones lost.

We're all doing our best, and we're all human.

Be the best human you can.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.

1. Don’t believe everything you think.

2. Relationships first.

3. There’s no such thing “All” and “Everyone”

4. Your Prospects don’t panic-buy, so don’t panic-sell

5. Customers buy Outcomes, and simple steps create stable outcomes.

6. Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast.

7. Be the Mayor of your town.

8. People will borrow certainty from the person who has the most of it in the room.

9. Your customer is on their Hero’s Journey.

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.

You know more about the problem your product solves that anyone – that’s why you started your company in the first place. No one else is solving the problem the right way, or none of the current products work.

57% of the purchase decision is made before a prospect contacts you & 67% of the buying journey is now done digitally. 

You HAVE to be front & center to teach your prospects about their problem and how to think about options to solve it.

That's why “Authority Voice” is one of the 9 Sales Accelerators that every startup needs to build and run to get more repeatability and predictability in their sales process.

Most of all, when you build and implement your Authority Voice Strategy this right way, you’re not just EDUCATING your prospects about their problem – you’re SEPARATING yourself from the rest of the marketing and INDOCTRINATING your prospects as to why they should work with you.

When you do this the right way, you’ll get more CLARITY, CONTROL & CONFIDENCE in your sales process.

If you'd like some help with your Authority Voice Strategy, or any of the 9 Sales Accelerators, send me a DM and I'll show you how my team & I can help.

Let's do this…

Check out the LinkedIn Live here:

www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6716745906336727041

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I was interviewed by Andrew Verboncouer.

Andrew is one of the Partners and CEO at Headway and has spent over 15 years in product design, product strategy, and development. Headway helps startups and corporate innovation teams launch and grow new digital products in FinTech, Healthcare, Logistics, and EdTech.

Andrew also hosts the Seaworthy podcast, which provides actionable advice around product validation, execution, and promotion.

Some of the key topics and questions that we talked about are:

• Ultramarathon.
• Hitting quota in sales.
• How do ultramarathons relate to sales?
• Moving from Blend to SalesQualia.
• How is SalesQualia different now than back then?
• Why do salespeople focus on the product rather than solving the problem?
• What are the biggest mistakes startups make when it comes to lead gen or sales?
• The advice I would give to anyone looking to start their own B2B or SaaS company.

Links and Resources:

(Website) Headway: www.headway.io

(LinkedIn) Andrew Verboncouer: www.linkedin.com/in/andrewverboncouer

Seaworthy Podcast: E18: Startup Sales: Selling On The Problem You Solve

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Robert L. Wallace is an internationally known entrepreneur, author, business consultant, and keynote speaker. With more than four decades of industry experience spanning engineering, energy, IT, and executive coaching, Bob leverages his expertise to educate and inspire entrepreneurs, executives, and audiences around the world.

Growing up in the housing projects of Baltimore City amidst poverty and racial segregation, Bob overcame social and economic obstacles through his own rags-to-riches story to become a successful serial entrepreneur. After being groomed by innovative industry leaders like IBM, DuPont, Westinghouse, and Procter & Gamble, Bob leveraged his experience to establish three companies: BITHGROUP Technologies Inc., a cybersecurity and IT services provider; Bithenergy, Inc., a renewable energy and consulting company; and Robert Wallace Media which includes RobertWallace.com and EntreTeach Learning Systems LLC.

Pulling from his real-life experiences and extensive research, Bob has authored 5 books and continues to write. His areas of expertise include wealth creation methodologies, urban economic development strategies, strategic partnerships, business spirituality, and domestic emerging markets. In particular, Robert addresses the business challenges faced by women, people of color, and entrepreneurs of all stripes from both domestic and global emerging markets. Bob tells the story of these amazing people with an insightful approach that makes his writing equally compelling to large corporations who are nurturing an “intrapreneurial” spirit within their workforce.

Today, Bob blends his diverse experiences in engineering, energy, technology, and entrepreneurship to educate, entertain and enlighten corporate audiences across industries and demographics. His dynamic keynote presentations and hands-on workshops inspire personal and professional breakthroughs, resulting in bottom-line improvements.

When he’s not researching, mentoring, or presenting to other business leaders, Bob enjoys spending time with his wife, their five children, eight grandchildren, and his internationally expanding family. He frequently leads groups on mission trips to various countries in Africa and Latin America, where he has helped start businesses, orphanages, and schools.  Avid about education, especially STEM programs, he regularly mentors students in high school and college. Bob is a passionate community leader and devoted church elder who believes in the intersection of spirituality and business. He helped establish Global Vessels, a faith-based nonprofit that pursues humanitarian projects around the world to meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in emerging nations. Through this nonprofit, he has built global relationships that have translated into profitable connections – an example of his motto to “do well while doing good.”

Currently, Bob serves as Affiliate Professor of Business at the Loyola University Sellinger School of Business, where he lectures on innovation and entrepreneurship in the global economy. Previously, he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania, and his MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. It was at Dartmouth where he began his groundbreaking research on the success characteristics on some of the world’s most accomplished entrepreneurs. He proudly serves on the boards of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents, the Greater Baltimore Committee, Capital Region Minority Supplier Development Council, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Maryland Economic Development Commission, The President’s Roundtable, and the Wallace for Mayor Campaign Committee.

Links and Resources:

(Website) Robert Wallace: www.robertwallace.com

(Store) Robert Wallace: www.robertwallace.com/store

(Books) Robert Wallace: amzn.to/2NMN6bq

(Instagram) Robert Wallace: www.instagram.com/drrobertlwallace

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Tom Searcy.

 By the age of 40, Tom had led four different corporations from revenues of less than $10 million to greater than $100 million, each in under four years. He is now the Founder and CEO of Hunt Big Sales, a fast-growth consultancy and thought leadership organization. 

Using his systems, Hunt Big Sales clients have landed more than $8 billion in new sales with 190 of the Fortune 500 companies, including 3M, Disney, Chase Bank, International Paper, AT&T, Apple, and hundreds more. 

Tom has over 20 years of experience as an expert in sales and thought leadership. As a keynote speaker and workshop leader, he is known for his expertise in unlocking explosive growth for business owners, educating business owners on the changing landscape of selling, and helping them position their organizations for continued growth. 

Tom delivers keynote speeches, whole, and half-day workshops, along with courses and dedicated coaching with an emphasis on actionable content designed to help business owners significantly increase revenue while successfully navigating and leading their organization through the new selling environment. 

He is a regular speaker at the Inc. Magazine and Inc. 500/500 conferences, as well as Vistage International, the leading organization for CEO thought-leadership. Tom is ranked in the top 1% of speakers at Vistage. More than 5,000 CEOs around the world have heard Tom speak about his sales growth methodologies. He has written weekly on-line columns for Forbes, CBS MoneyWatch and Inc.com, which have a combined readership of 38 million. Tom’s expertise has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times UK, Inc. Magazine, and numerous business publications.

Tom is the author of multiple books. His latest book, Life After the Death of Selling: How to Thrive in the New Era of Sales, covers the new buyer driven economy, and how to survive extinction in the new era of sales. He’s also written RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business. Tom’s the co-author of Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company, and How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Dealmaker.

Some of the key topics and questions that we talked about are:

• How does a company know that they're ready to double their deal sizes and covert deals more quickly?
• Four key areas that are necessary for a company to grow:
• • Support new deals
  • The team
  • The desire to grow
  • The belief that the team can hit their growth
• Price is based on the problem and not urgency.
• The importance of a target filter.
• The importance of fear versus having a technical advantage when it comes to a buyer’s decision.
• Fear busters.
• The eel in the deal.
• “Yes, later” actually means “No”.
• How to create an ethical unfair advantage. 

Links and Resources:

[Website] Hunt Big Sales: www.huntbigsales.com

[LinkedIn] Tom Searcy: www.linkedin.com/in/tomsearcy

[Book] How to Sell in Place: www.huntbigsales.com/resources/store

[YouTube] Hunt Big Sales: www.youtube.com/channel/UCiyT8WJfXLC78MVWmFn7-5A

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Mary Grothe is a former #1 MidMarket B2B Sales Rep who after selling millions and breaking multiple records, formed House of Revenue™️, a Denver-based firm of fractional Revenue Leaders who currently lead the marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps departments for 10 companies nationwide. 

In the past year, they've helped multiple 2nd-stage-growth companies between $2M - $20M, on average, double their MRR within 10 months, resulting in an average ROI of 1,454% and an average annual revenue growth eclipsing $3.2 million.

Some of the key topics and questions that we talked about are:

• Mary’s transition from working for someone to working for herself.
• What are things that hold CEOs from growing?
• Mindset changes a CEO or Founder needs to make in order to grow.
• The difference between “wanting” to make changes and grow and being “ready” to make changes and grow.
• Mary’s process for helping CEOs get clear about what they want.
• Mythical Sales Unicorn and the 175 rule.

Links and Resources:

Mary on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/marygrothe

Website: www.marygrothe.com

House Of Revenue™: www.houseofrevenue.com

Sales BQ: www.salesbq.com

Mary on Twitter: twitter.com/marylgrothe

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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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.