In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jenifer Smith.

If Jennifer Smith is right, the way anyone shares how-to knowledge is about to change forever. A former VC and McKinsey consultant turned accidental CEO, she interviewed more than 1,200 business leaders on a quest to understand everything there is to know about processes, best practices, and productivity. Now with her startup Scribe, she’s empowering people to own their processes by building the world’s first operating system for know-how.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• The Sales Journey of SCRIBE
• The Concept of “Top 3 Problems”
• The Concept of “Dolphin-Swimming” 
• Learning From Sales Calls
• Hiring Managers for Early Stage Startups 

Links & Resources: 

Scribe’s website – https://scribehow.com/ 

Twitter- https://twitter.com/scribeceo?lang=en

LinkedIn – hhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferreneesmith/

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Morgan Smith & Nicholas Thickettl.

Morgan Smith and Nicholas Thickett are Managing Partners at Alignd, a go-to-market and sales advisory firm, where they help B2B SaaS achieve pipeline momentum with better sales workflows and social prospecting.

Morgan is a marketer by trade, originally a web designer that became a brand strategist. Nick is a long-time seller who made his name in investment banking and turnarounds.

Together, they host the B2B Power Hour, a podcast & live show helping SDRs and AEs learn modern sales with guest industry experts.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• No Pitch Vs Pitch 
• Vampire Sales
• The Rule of 3: Three Round- Trip Conversations
• The 3 Types of People on LinkedIn 

Links & Resources: 

Alignd's website – https://getalignd.co

B2B Power Hour – https://b2bpowerhour.com

Morgan's LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/morganjsmith/

Nicholas' LinkedIn – https://linkedin.com/in/nicholasthickett

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jarrod Best-Mitchell.

Jarrod is recognized for three things.

- His passion for Sales and sharing that knowledge with his community.

- His expert understanding of the B2B platform LinkedIn

- His undying love for the color yellow.

Jarrod is recognized as of one the top content creators and social sellers on LinkedIn in the Caribbean. With over 700K organic views on his content for 2022, Jarrod has used the world’s largest B2B platform to help entrepreneurs and companies grow their business and position them as the ‘go-to’ for their respective industries. He was recently recognized by Skaled.com as one of the top upcoming sales leaders on the platform. 

Since making the pivot to sole entrepreneurship in LinkedIn and Sales Training, Jarrod has completed training and provided consultations for numerous organizations. 

His client list spans industries such as Insurance, Real Estate, Telecoms, IT and Technology, Energy Sector, Distribution, SaaS, Media, Finance (Credit Union), Media, Telecoms, Fashion, and Retail. Best- Mitchell is also the co-founder of Sales as a Profession- – a Sales platform that is dedicated to the best profession in the world, Sales! 

Since inception in 2018, Jarrod and his business partner have made significant progress in developing the knowledge and techniques of sales professionals not just locally in Trinidad and Tobago but across the Caribbean. 

The most recent installment in the offerings of Sales as a Profession was their 2020 Sales Conference – The New Sales Perspective. Building on the success of their first conference in 2019 and adapting to the present landscape with a total virtual presentation- this conference amassed over 130 attendees along with its impressive speaker and sponsor lineup. Jarrod brings to the table over 16 years of professional experience and his personal credo of ‘Enjoy Life! Don’t worry about it!’ 

Jarrod's personality attracts individuals, organizations, and opportunities as he is known for his exuberance and uncanny sense of humor. He understands what type of conversations and content drives engagement and attracts customers to a business through his unique insights into content creation and social selling. 

Jarrod’s passion and commitment to excellence transcend the workplace as he extends himself to help others realize and achieve their full potential.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Outsourcing Sales Talent to the Caribbean
• Tactic and Strategies on LinkedIn
• Finding and Repurposing content for LinkedIn

Links & Resources: 

Website - www.jarrodbestmitchell.com

LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/jarrodbestmitchell

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Leslie Venetz.

After 15 years as a top-performing B2B sales professional and people leader, Leslie is an expert in building elite sales organizations. As the founder of Sales Team Builder, Leslie uses her expertise to partner with organizations that want to build inclusive, buyer-centric sales teams. 

Leslie is committed to making sales a respected profession and applies her experience as a 3x Head of Sales to help sales professionals achieve their personal best.

Leslie also shares content daily on LinkedIn and TikTok at SalesTipsTok. She is also a published author and was recently featured in Heels to Deals: How Women are Dominating in B2B Business

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Tik Tok for B2B Sales
• Women in Sales at Startups and Tech Companies 
• Difference between Hustle and Bro-Culture vs Hardwork 

Links & Resources: 

Website - www.insidesalesteambuilder.com 

LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/leslievenetz

TikTok @SalesTipsTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@salestipstok?lang=en

Unleash Playbook - https://www.unleashplaybook.teachable.com 

Daily Does of Sales Inspiration - https://b2bsalesteambuilder.gumroad.com/

Heels to Deals: How Women are Dominating B2B Sales - https://www.bmctalkspress.com/products/heels

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jen Spencer.

Jen Spencer is the CEO of SmartBug Media®, a leading Intelligent Inbound® marketing agency that assists both B2B and B2C e-commerce businesses in growing revenue by generating leads, scaling revenue operations, and building market awareness through digital content, design, and web development.

Jen is an influential thought leader in the sales, marketing, and revenue operations space, regularly speaking at B2B conferences as well as serving as a mentor for revenue leaders through Pavilion's Rising Executives Program. She also started and hosted a weekly podcast called SmartBug on Tap for several years before launching the new Intelligent Inbound Podcast® aimed at challenging the status quo for inbound marketing with inspiring stories from some of marketing's most innovative and successful players. Jen subscribes to the notion that “we’re all in this together,” and great communication leads to a great partnership. She loves animals, technology, the arts, and really good Scotch.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• At what stage of your business should you consider hiring a Marketing Agency?
• What is the importance of having sales-minded marketing people or marketing-minded salespeople?
• What can you do as a startup in terms of marketing; if you are not ready to hire a marketing agency as yet? 
• What are the signals to know it's time to hire a marketing agency? 

Links & Resources: 

Website: https://www.smartbugmedia.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenspencer/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenspencer

The Intelligent Inbound® Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1MV0CnkTDtCupFnPJzJLFG?si=2452443647174d73

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Todd Caponi.

Todd Caponi is the author of the 3x best-book-award-winning, The Transparency Sale, a speaker & workshop leader as Founder & CEO of Sales Melon LLC, and the Managing Director of Chicago’s VentureSCALE. Todd is also a multi-time C-Level sales leader, a behavioral science nerd, and has guided two companies to successful exits.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• State of the Sales Economy 
• Inflation of Hires and Roles
• Labour Demand 
• Labour Supply 

Links & Resources: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddcaponi/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tcaponi

Website: www.transparencysale.com

Link to the book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Bxenr

Here’s a link to his Media Kit for more information: https://www.transparencysale.com/mediakit

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Andy Paul .

Andy's hit "Accelerate Your Sales" podcast was acquired by Revenue.io in 2020. Since re-named "Sales Enablement with Andy Paul", the show continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals each week. 

Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, "Zero-Time Selling" and "Amp Up Your Sales". 

He is ranked #8 on LinkedIn's list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts. 

And he has consulted with some of the biggest businesses in the world including Square, Philips, Grubhub and more, making him one of the leading voices in the sales industry today.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Opportunities to change how we sell and engage with clients.
• Ways to help our buyers think through the process of making a decision.
• Importance of being less automated in sales. 
• Having a “Buyer-Centric Approch”

Links & Resources: 

Website: https://www.andypaul.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/realandypaul

Twitter: @realAndyPaul

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Jeff Bajorek.

Jeff Bajorek works with B2B sales teams to maximize performance by reframing their approach, their selling skills, and their mindset around their purpose. He helps them rethink the way they sell by reminding them of what needs to be done, showing them how to do it, and then making them believe they can.

When he’s not at work, you can find him on a golf course, or cooking something delicious for his family.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• The concept of “No Tension, No Sale”
• The Idea of Moving the Needle
• Creating a Shift in Mindset 
• Choosen Vision

Links & Resources: 

Website: www.jeffbajorek.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffbajorek

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffbajorek/

Rethink the way you sell Podcast: https://pod.link/1555332957

Donate to Chosen Vision:www.jeffbajorek.com/chosenvision

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The 3 Key Parts of Every Product Demo (and none of them are you product...)

Been working on product demos with a few clients the past few weeks and wanted to share a critical mindset shift to make when it comes to product demos…

In this video, I'm showing you a simple model that I teach to our clients all the time that will help you avoid prospects ghosting you after your demos.

Even better, you can grab a copy of the SalesQualia Product Demo Prep Pack: Visit https://salesqualia.com/demoprep/ to get yours now! 

This pack includes –

✅ 10 Questions to Ask BEFORE Your Product Demos

✅ The Demo Prep Worksheet to help you map out your meeting strategy and outcomes before you hop on the next demo.

✅ The Prospect Researcher Worksheet so that you know more about your prospects before every meeting, including their priorities and desired outcome

Click here for the Video Version of this podcast on LinkedIn

I scrapped the snazzy sales framework I had ready to go because...

I’ve got something else that’s more important – it's about what's going on out there.

Unease. Uncertainty. Anxiety. Seems everyone’s feeling it.

Maybe not everyone. Maybe everything is honky-dory & hockey stick in your world – I hope that’s the case. I want that for every company founder.

But if it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows, know that it’s not just you.

I’ve been talking to our clients all over the world – startup CEOs, investors, program directors.

They're all sharing that everything’s just.. a... lit...tle... bit... slower... I'm guessing you are, too.

Your customers & prospects are feeling it, because their customers & prospects are feeling it.

Big company earnings reports and headlines sharply negative – Netflix. Facebook. Alphabet. Spotify. Job cuts at Wells Fargo, Novartis, Robinhood and Blend.

Ukraine. Recessions. The threat of nuclear war.

Your team is feeling it. 

Higher gas prices. Higher prices everywhere. Tax season is expensive, and summer camps are next. Summer trips to Disneyland are becoming camping trips and stay-cations. That bigger house is on hold because of mortgage rates & home prices. 

You’re feeling it, too. I know because I see it on Zoom. I hear it on phone calls. We're all just a little tired and frustrated.

All of us pushed and persevered through the last two years, and here we are, again, facing yet another test of our mettle as founders. As leaders. As colleagues. As partners and parents.

Coming out of 2021, there was a sense of justified optimism –promise for the year ahead.  While COVID persisted, it seemed the worst was behind us and this would be the breakout year we’ve preparing for. Kids were back in school. We figured out the WFH thing.

Except that it hasn't.

So now what the f&ck do we do?

Now we remember what we did for the past two years.  We use that experience to be a leader. To stay composed and in control. We lead.

We lead our customers. We lead our prospects. We lead our teams. We lead our family. We lead our Self.

---

If you'd like some help, I’d like to offer a hand –  

I'm running a private LIVE Session for our coaching clients coming up, and you’re invited – even if you're not a client. Especially if you're not a client.

We’re going to dive deep into every company's sales process – from Lead Gen to Active Deals to Pricing & CS.  

We’re going to identify specific risks and gaps, then build a plan-of-action for the next 3, 6 & 12 months for getting more leads, closing more deals, keeping more customers, and hiring the right team around us.

If you’d like to join, check out the details at https://salesqualia.com/roadmap/ 

Because this is a client event that we're opening up to non-clients, we have limited spots (like less than 10…). Our clients are a tight group that are always willing to share and help, but I’ve also got to put them first. 

In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Dan Martell.

“You can only keep what you give away.” That’s the mantra that’s shaped Dan Martell from a struggling 20-something business owner in the Canadian Maritimes to a successful startup founder who’s successfully raised more than $2 million in venture funding and exited not one... not two... but three tech businesses: Clarity.fm, Spheric and Flowtown.

Serial entrepreneur, speaker & investor Dan is a perfect example of someone who has overcome all odds to achieve massive success. Dan now dedicates his time to coaching high performing SaaS entrepreneurs to scale their businesses in a predictable way. 

An activator, a tech geek, an adrenaline junkie and, yes, a romantic (ask his wife Renee), Dan splits his time between Canada (where he grew up), and San Diego with his wife Renee and two boys.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• The Not Been Knowing/Doing Gap
• Achieve/ Keep Simplicity in your Business 
• 3 Questions When Deciding To Introduce Something New To Your Business 
• Examples of the 3 Question Framework 

Links & Resources: 

Website: www.danmartell.com/

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/dmartell/

Instagram: @danmartell

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Ernest Owusu.

As the Sr. Director of Sales Development at 6sense, Ernest Owusu leverages his passion for helping others succeed as well as his insights from the field to foster a winning team. With previous experience as an NFL athlete, Ernest thrives in team environments full of high collaboration and healthy competition. Outside of the office, you’ll find him tackling the industry’s diversity problem by mentoring and empowering under-represented people so they can confidently grow their careers.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• SDR Sales Development
• SDR Hiring 
• SDR as a Team
• Assessing SDR Candidates 
• Metrics and Quick Decisions for Hiring and Letting go 
• Importance of Communication as a Sales Rep 
• Recruiting Potential Candidates
• Sales for the Culture

Links & Resources: 

Website

6Sense: www.6sense.com

Sales for the Culture: www.salesfortheculture.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheErnestOwusu 

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ernestowusu

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Andy Mowat.

Prior to founding Gated, Andy has run marketing and operations at Upwork, Box, and Culture Amp. His vision and expertise set the tone for the entire Gated team - as we build a solution and a movement to fix email, for everyone.

You get too much irrelevant email. Gated is a free, intelligent email solution that reduces unwanted email and benefits charity - by challenging unknown senders to donate to reach your inbox. Gated works with your existing email setup, making it simple to use. It also reduces inbox volume by an average of 43%, making your inbox more productive and peaceful.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Gated
• Marketing
• The evolution of email
• Change in outbound marketing
• Alternatives to Email

Links & Resources: 

Website: ww.gated.com 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/netmow

Andy Mowat on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amowat

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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 Ethan Beute.

Chief Evangelist at BombBomb, Wall Street Journal bestselling co-author of Human-Centered Communication and of Rehumanize Your Business, and host of The Customer Experience Podcast, Ethan Beute has spent the past decade helping business professionals be more personal and human through simple video messages. He’s sent more than 12,000 videos himself. 

He also spent a dozen years leading marketing teams inside local television stations in Chicago, Grand Rapids, and Colorado Springs. He holds undergraduate and graduates degrees from the University of Michigan and UCCS in communication, psychology, and marketing. A husband and father, he lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Rehumanizing the experience of our communication.
• How do we create a personal connection with people?
• Digital Pollution. 
• Ethan’s Platinum Rule.
• Opportunities and mistakes made when using videos to connect with people.

Links & Resources: 

Website: www.bombbomb.com

Twitter: twitter.com/ethanbeute

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Ethan-Beute/e/B07LFNWL39

Ethan Beute  on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ethanbeute

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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 Volas 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. She 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.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• The importance of communication.
• The importance of listening. 
• The importance of understanding how much of what we're sharing in a sales presentation, interviewing candidates, etc. is remembered.
• How can we do better as communicators?
• How to communicate so our prospects don’t feel confused.
• Ensuring that the company that’s doing the interviewing knows who you are as a candidate.
• The state of hiring when it comes to women in technology.

Links & Resources: 

Website: avenuetalentpartners.com

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

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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 Aaron Krall.

Aaron runs SaaS Growth Hacks, the largest SaaS community in the world with over 24,000 members. He helps B2B SaaS companies increase their leads and demo conversions using his SaaS Growth Playbook model. 

He has personally worked with 100’s SaaS companies across dozens of industries and has helped 1000’s more attract their dream customers and convert them to rabid fans. He has increased leads, demo conversions, and ARR for clients like IBM, Reply.io, Freshworks, Brand24, and more. 

Aaron lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Natalie, his son, Arlo, and dog Penny. He enjoys reading horror movie synopsis on Wikipedia and leaving reviews on Google Maps.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• How to find your ideal customer
• Finding and owning a niche
• How to create a SaaS product that people will find hard to say no to
• Partnership Playbook - how to find, talk to and build relationships with high-value partners
• Difference between a niche, market, and ideal customer 
• Bias and assumptions 

Links & Resources: 

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

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/Aaron-S-Krall-345461526368945 

Aaron on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/aaronkrall 

Aaron on Twitter:twitter.com/aaron_krall?lang=en 

Aaron's shock and awe page - https://on.aaronkrall.io/case-studies

SalesQualia Live Events: https://salesqualia.com/live_events

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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 Jess Todtfeld.

Jess shows executives and c-suite leaders how to BE Magnetic — how to quickly gain the confidence and skills to master speeches, presentations, and media interviews.

Jess, CSP, is one of the leading communication and media training authorities in the U.S. With more than 17 years as a communication trainer and consultant. Todtfeld helps CEOs, business executives, spokespersons, public relations representatives, experts, and authors to become more confident, more in control, and to create more results from their speaking engagements and media appearances.

He brings with him 13 years of experience as a TV producer for NBC, ABC, and FOX, having booked and produced over 5,000 segments. Jess’ time in front of the camera includes features reporting, guest spots on national/international news programs, and hosting of “America’s Premiere Experts” and “Times Square Today” (2015-2019) which has been broadcast on ABC, NBC, FOX and CBS affiliates in the U.S.

As a guest, Jess went on to set a Guinness Record for being interviewed the most times in 24 hours… 112 different interviews on radio.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• The importance of having storytelling as a key skill.
• How to be specific and memorable in your storytelling.
• How to avoid data dump when you’re telling stories to your customers.
• How to use examples to emphasize key points to deliver with your audience.
• How to think about public relations and the logistics that it takes to market the right way.

Links & Resources: 

Jess on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/todtfeld

Meet Jess Todtfeld: www.bookjess.com/how-can-jess-help-you

Cell:  (917) 207-1039 

SalesQualia Live Events: salesqualia.com/live_events

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"How do you keep people engaged in a sales call, or in the sales process in general?"

The first answer that came to mind was to remember that your prospects are people. They have stuff happening all around them everyday, just like you.

Personal stuff. Family stuff. Health stuff. COVID. Kid stuff. Spouse stuff.

Sure, the past two years have been stranger than normal, but that's the normal we're in now. Strange is normal.

Remember that when you're making that cold call, or pissed off that the prospect is late for your Zoom, or they seemed distracted during the demo.

It's probably not personal, because it could well be something personal for them.

#leadership #sales #BeHuman

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What most CRMs reflect as "Stages" in a company's sales process, are really just reasons for sales opportunities to stall out…

Qualification is not a stage. Demo is not a stage. Proposal is not a stage. Contract is not a stage.

These are all just opportunities for sales opportunities to slow down, grind to a halt and end up in "long-term follow-up."

Why?

Because the right way to treat qualifications, demos, and proposals for these sales activities is treating them as catalysts to the next stage in the sale.

That means you have a specific process for:

1. Maintaining momentum...
2. Handling objections...
3. Unstalling deals that get mired in the muck...

When you're selling a complex enterprise solution, one of your primary responsibilities is to keep control of the sale by always knowing the next step, and leading your customers through your sales process.

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Selling Boldly Author, Alex Goldfayn.

Alex is a global sales consultant, speaker, and author of a Wall Street Journal best-seller called Selling Boldly.

The Revenue Growth Consultancy creates an average annual revenue growth of 10-20% for its clients. About once a week, he delivers keynote speeches, sales kickoffs, breakout sessions, and workshops for various associations and companies around the country. 

The topic is sales growth, but Alex also dives deeply into confidence (instead of meekness), proactivity (instead of reactivity), and optimism (instead of pessimism). Fast sales growth is a function of mindset change and a system of simple behaviors.

After reading Alex’s book, I sent him a note on Linkedin. We talked on the phone, and we immediately clicked. So I invited him to the Startup Selling Show, and he graciously accepted.

The reason I wanted to have Alex on the podcast is to talk through the strategies he uses when he consults with large companies and their sales teams, and how you can implement them with your startup as you grow and scale.

In today’s conversation, we focused on how start-up sellers can change their mindsets and use communication to increase sales.  

Here are some of the topics that we covered in our conversation:

• How to develop friendlies in the marketplace.
• How to increase positive psychology when selling.
• Overcoming fears and how to have positive conversations with the people in your marketplace.
• How to migrate away from lazy, low-risk communications and what to do instead.
• How to have “human” interactions with your prospects.
• Communication techniques you can use to increase your sales.

Links & Resources:

• Alex Goldfayn on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/alexgoldfayn

• Alex Goldfayn on Twitter: twitter.com/alexgoldfayn

• Email: alex@evangelistmktg.com

• Selling Boldly: Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales - https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Boldly-Psychology-Dramatically-Confidence-ebook/dp/B07BFK97QD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1545081598&sr=8-1&keywords=selling+boldly

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Cirrus Insight Co-Founder Brandon Bruce. 

Brandon is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Cirrus Insight. Since founding the company in 2011, Cirrus Insight has been listed in the Inc 5000 ranking for three years in a row — A list of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

Cirrus Insight is an all-in-one sales productivity platform with world-class Salesforce integration. 250,000 people use Cirrus Insight and its sister products Attach.io and Assistant.to to work faster and smarter from the inbox and calendar. It allows you to Track emails, schedule meetings, set follow-ups, and more, right from your inbox.

Brandon grew up in Los Olivos, a small California town of 800 people, and had only one classmate in grade school.

He loves endurance sports and raced his bicycle 508 miles across Death Valley in 2002 as part of the Furnace Creek 508 (https://www.the508.net/). He finished in 35 hours and 7 minutes. He also enjoys hiking, camping, and building with Legos. Brandon lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Tricia, and their two children, Sonoma and Carson.

Brandon’s advice for Entrepreneurs and Founders:

“Stay curious.” & “Have the ability to make decisions.”

In my conversation with Brandon, we covered a lot of the early days at Cirrus Insight. We focused on how Brandon and his Co-Founder, Ryan Huff, built the company from 0 to +250,000 users.

Some of the topics that we covered are:

• Getting their first users.
• Converting them into paying customers.
• Pricing in the early days Vs Pricing now.
• Making their first sales hire.
• The bottom-up sales strategy.
• Creating your product roadmap based on feedback.
• Using partners to sell your product.

Links & Resources: 

• Brandon on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce

• Cirrus Insight – https://www.cirrusinsight.com

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed John Roberts.

John founded Successly in 2016, a company dedicated to helping Customer Success teams make a big impact. John recently moved to Silicon Valley after a successful run guiding his previous startup – Buzz.Report – in North Carolina.

3 Key Takeaways from this podcast:

1. Customer Success is a Business Model.
2. If you have to choose between Customer Success or Sales, choose Customer Success first.
3. Customer Success should be at the head of the table for every company.

Customer Success: Definition & Important notes:

• Why every subscription company is only successful when you retain your customers is because the real value is how long you can retain those customers.
• How can you make Customer Success successful in a way that creates value?
• Completing 290 Customer Success Interviews with VPs about customer success. 

Customer Success & Its Role in the Sales Process. Think about these:

• What are the goals we're striving for over the next year with the product?
• Should Customer Success teams have veto power over new customer acquisition?
• Aligning top-line sales growth while avoiding churn and misaligned incentives?
• How can you make sure the customer success team is compensated Renewals?
• Casting in the sales process – Sales focuses on education and Customer Success focuses on implementation.
• Focusing on the “jobs to be done.”
• Customer Success is the crucible of all communication and activity.
• Why Customer success should be at the head of the table in product companies.
• Customer success as a business model.
• Customer success teams and capturing the voice of the customer. 

Organizational Design for Start-up CEOs:

• The case for why Customer success should be the first team to build.

• Questions to ask: What’s the experience with the customer?  How can we watch the customer use the system or product?  How can we understand every aspect of the customer’s interaction with the product? 

Customer Success teams vs Product teams:

• Customer success should focus on what the customers needs.
• The Product Team should focus on the best features to build in response to the customer success team’s list of problems. 

Hiring customer success teams when someone wants to be the sales or the product manager:

• Set expectations very clearly.
• All other departments relate to customer success.
• You’ll be seeing is more salespeople in the customer success role in the future. 

Links & Resources: 

John Roberts on LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/john-roberts-92bb0438

Adam O'Donnell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamfodonnell/

Listen & subscribe to The Startup Selling Show here:

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In this episode of the Startup Selling Podcast, I interviewed Damian Thompson.

Damian is the co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at LeadFuze, a company that provides automated lead generation software that helps B2B companies find leads and have more sales conversations automatically. Damian has led sales teams in a dozen countries, coaching 200+ professionals to more than $100 million in sales.

Damian walked us through his "Cardinal Rules of Cold Emailing.” 

Here are a few we discussed:

1 - Passive-Aggressive SUCKS (my words…): Sending a second or third or fourth email to someone that read – "I haven’t heard back from you…” is really bad. It’s not the prospect’s fault they haven’t replied – it’s yours. Would you want to receive this email? Would you respond? How do you feel when you get these emails?

2 - Brevity: Assume email is read on mobile.  Don’t use wasted words. 

Bad: "I found you on Angel List…” or “I know you’re busy so I won’t take much time…”

3 - Don’t be apologetic: As Damian said – "if you target your market right, you’re offering something of value… They [your prospects] WANT to work with you.”

4 - Start your email with questions, then offer a quick value proposition then close with a call-to-action. 

Ask yourself: What are the 1-2 biggest problems/pains of customers? 

Reverse engineer biggest objections.

4 - Think low friction. The goal of your cold email should be to start a conversation. Don’t ask your prospects to call you or try to book a meeting right away. That’s too much to ask.

Be happy with ANY reply. There’s no such thing as a negative reply. If you’re getting NOTHING, that’s the worst outcome. 

5 - Subject Lines Matter: Shorter is better. Five (5) words or less is ideal. Using the person’s first name or company name works really well. 

It’s okay to be aggressive. Damian’s best-performing email subject line was “You’re doing it wrong,” but be sure to link subject lines to email’s content and ultimately, write emails that match your personality. If you’re just not comfortable being aggressive, do something else.

6 - Provide value in every interaction and outreach. Give prospects something quick that’s useful, and offer a few more ideas.

Once you nail your message and market, find a way to do it on a scale because, as Damian said “using Lead Generation to validate a market is a disaster."

Remember that NO ONE buys for your TECHNICAL SOLUTION. Customers buy to increase revenue, reduce costs, and to get a promotion. There’s some other motivation, so find it and write to it.

Finally, we talked about building your sales team. 

A few key ideas:

• "If you’re gonna hire one, you’ve gotta hire two.”
• You cannot hire someone to build your sales process. YOU have to define your sales process, THEN you can bring on your sales team.
• Once you hire, you’re going to spend more time, not less, doing sales.
• You cannot hire commission-only salespeople. It sends bad signals to the company.
• Align metrics and incentives directly to the outcomes you want of that role. For example, paying an SDR based on long-term customer retention is really bad.
• Before you ask an employee to do something, ask yourself: “Have I done this successfully?”
• When hiring, it’s not about money for most SDR hires - your middle career salespeople care about money, but arly hires want company and personal growth.

People & Mentions from this episode:

• Damian on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/damianthompson

• Damian on Twitter: @damianthompson
•  
• LeadFuze: www.leadfuze.com

• Episode 130: Predictable Prospecting: Target, Engage & Optimize Your Sales Funnel, and Why Introverts are the Best SalesPeople: An Interview with Marylou Tyler

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 Marylou Tyler.

Marylou is the author of Predictable Revenue and Predictable Prospecting. She has worked with a number of co-authors and produced a book that will certainly help any startup company out there. Being one of the best sales enablement strategists, she is an expert when it comes to maximizing your resources and is always willing to share her knowledge to anyone who needs help.

This podcast focuses both on the incredible things that a startup business owner can do to improve sales and the common mistakes everyone should avoid. 

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

• Internalizing Your Competitive Position
• Six-Factor SWOT Analysis
• Developing an Ideal Account Profile
• Compel with ContentTM
• McKinsey’s MECE model
• How you can send your emails wisely, and so many more

Links & Resources

Marylou Tyler on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maryloutyler

Marylou’s website & book-related resources: maryloutyler.com/swag

Jeremey Donovan on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeremeydonovan

(Amazon) Book by Neil Rackham: SPIN Selling

(Amazon) Book by Neil Rackham: Major Account Sales Strategy

(Amazon) by Marylou Tyler and Jeremey Donovan: “Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline”

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 Louis Jonckheere.

Louis is Co-founder and Co-CEO of Showpad. Showpad activates millions of pieces of content for over 850 companies around the world, including Johnson & Johnson, Fujifilm, Audi, Intel, and Kimberly-Clark.

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

• What types of content works best to drive sales prospect engagement?
• How Showpad uses a 14-day free trial and “Soft Contracts”
• The importance of video for your sales and communication
• Company culture and hiring practices
• Customer engagement and customer success

Links & Resources

Showpad Website: www.showpad.com

Louis Jonckheere on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/louisjonckheere

Louis Jonckheere on Twitter: www.twitter.com/louisjonckheere

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.