The Sales Evangelist: Sales Training|Speaking|Business Marketing|Donald Kelly

Sales is all about solving problems. But are you going about solving problems the right way? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by guest Bryan Kelly to discuss how we can ask more beautiful questions, using the book A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger as a framework.   Phase One: Why? When we ask ‘why,’ it requires you to adjust the way you look at the world. There are three different ways to get into this mentality. First, step back and disengage. Taking a break will break up your routine and help inspiration strike. Next, challenge your assumptions. Whether they’re your assumptions or the assumptions of others, asking questions about your current process will help you find new avenues to explore. Finally, question the questions. Reframe a question to challenge the expected answer.  Remember the five why’s. (Literally ask the question “why” five times in a row to get to the root understanding of the situation.)   Phase Two: Wondering “What If?” Get everybody (including yo

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by founder and CEO of Whale Boss, Ryan Staley. As a sales consultant who helps sales executives double their income, he’s learned from and watched many different organizations, thus knowing how you can hire top sellers with little experience at your company.  Why did Ryan start a consultancy firm? Ryan noticed there are many things he took for granted working for a large organization that small business owners, startups, and SaaS companies weren’t doing. That was part of the reason he founded his consultancy firm, because he wanted to coach CEOs on those things. Small businesses, startups, and SaaS companies do an amazing job building products or services, but they don’t talk to thier customers after they sell them the deal. Maintaining a structured value process will exponentially increase referrals and revenue. Ryan’s corporate job showed him the power of a good team: Working over sixty hours a week got Ryan to a point where all his relationshi

The life of a sales manager is tough, and juggling your own obligations often means you don’t have time to coach your team as often as you’d like. Microcoaching might just be the solution for you. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by President and CEO of Salesfuel C. Lee Smith to explain his process and platform for microcoaching to improve his salespeople. Three problems with coaching today:  Coaches aren’t being held accountable. Sales managers get busy meeting a short-term quota and don’t have time for long-term staff development. Some sales managers are uncomfortable coaching. They think they don’t know how to do it or get pushback from team members. Finally, there are managers who want to put time into coaching, but there are only so many hours in the day and find it challenging to maintain momentum. Microcoaching is the solution. Short, frequent bursts of 2-6 minute coaching give sales managers the flexibility to maintain coaching momentum between one-on-one meetings throug

Donald is remote on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, as he’s speaking at the sales conference Outbound. Be on the lookout for next year’s conference! Today’s episode of TSE is simple: we’re going retro. A brief TSE history. Donald quit his job in July of 2015, and The Sales Evangelist became his full-time gig. Originally the show was only two episodes per week, but it soon expanded to three per week. (because we just love delivering sales content to all of our amazing listeners.) After participating in Podcast Movement for a couple of years, TSE started to create episodes five days a week. But we realized our listeners are busy, and five episodes a week might be too much content, so we doubled back to three episodes per week. TSE is going retro. Donald thought our downloads would go down when the episode frequency dropped. But surprisingly, it didn’t. In fact, it did better in some instances.  We want to deliver better content. More research. More awesome guests. And that takes time. To create the

It doesn’t matter if you’re leading a team of one or one hundred, becoming a better sales leader can always lead to positive change within your organization. And on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Tim Kintz to discuss four areas to promote strengths and identify weaknesses as a sales leader: lead, manage, train, and coach. Lead Managers are often the least trained employees. And especially for those internally promoted, they might not know how to navigate that change with respect to their fellow employees. As a sales leader, you need to help your employees develop long-term goals. Once those goals are in place, you can work together to set specific and actionable milestones to reach them. Manage You lead people; you manage things. Are you organized as a sales leader? Do you schedule out your day to accomplish what you need? Not only do you need to manage your time and activities, but you need to manage the statistics and tendencies of your people. Consider managing the detail-f

Just like for many other industries, hiring sales positions has inherited problems because of the pandemic. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald is joined by Brian Trautschold, COO and co-founder of sales management platform Ambition, to discuss three things companies can do to navigate a hybrid sales workforce. Whether you’re a huge company or just a dozen people, COVID is evening the hiring playing field, and integrating these three components can help you acquire the kind of employees you want. Build a company culture, whether it be virtual or in-person. Some company cultures are just fake - think Michael Scott trying to build a culture at Dunder Mifflin. When creating your own company culture, the key is to be authentic. Recognize people as they reach their milestones, and show genuine care for your employees and their aspirations. Especially when employees don’t have the support of an in-person team, it’s easy to lose motivation without recognition. Engage your workforce to overcome distr

The digital shift of the workplace has manifested the need for digital company culture. Digital culture is necessary to improve internal relationships at your company, but it’s integral in expanding your social reach as a company and developing a following that gives you business. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by Tacie Avedikian, VP of Digital Development at Little Bird Marketing, to learn how companies can embrace digital culture to develop a social influence. But first, what does Tacie mean by social influence? The original meaning has shifted a bit in terms of how people use social media.  Leveraging influencers from B2C platforms like Instagram or Facebook and transferring those things into more B2B platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter is critical.  The challenges of hiring new team members:  In the current age, being seen online is critical in bringing in suitable candidates. Because of this digital world, company-wide social influence is vital to attract candidates and client

Many tech companies view the idea of SDRs as advantageous because they deal with the tough or mundane elements of the sales process like cold calling, making lists, and following up with inbound leads. But SDRs, with the proper training and support, can be much more. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by David Dulany, founder and CEO of the research and advisory firm Tenbound, to learn how you can develop your sales bench. The elements of a good sales bench: Your SDR team is a group of people who, when needed, have learned the skills necessary to jump into a full sales position when one becomes available.  To understand which skills are most valuable, analyze your recruitment process and list out traits that make someone successful at your company. Are they tenacious, proactive, or require specific technical skills? Create a plan to incorporate training elements for each of those skills for your SDR team and develop ways for new hires to understand what they need to be successful right

A challenging aspect of a salesperson’s job is business development. One way you can simplify the business development process, however, is through outsourcing. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by Tom Ancona, founder and chief strategist at ROCKyourcompany.com, to discuss how outsourcing can lead to new business development. The first step to outsourcing: visualize. Think about your goals. If you had a team of people to execute everything you want to do, what is that vision?  Work backward from that vision to determine who will get you to that point. When outsourcing, the words “you get what you give” could not be more accurate. The results and work you get are directly related to the instruction and information you provide. Develop your vision: Pretend you’re talking to a recently hired assistant - be descriptive in what you want. The more details you provide, the better the project will be.  If the project requires platforms like Sales Navigator, have at least a baseline understan

Working as a sales manager can be tough. Why make it more challenging than it has to be? And without the proper guidance and support, it can be especially difficult to find the right people for your organization. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by Frank Cespedes, senior lecturer at Harvard business school, to learn his strategy for finding and retaining top-level salespeople. There are inherent challenges to hiring within sales.  Not enough people in and outside the sales function that there are challenges in hiring sales that don’t exist elsewhere. People major in engineering, accounting, and finance. There are less than 200 sales courses in the United States universities, let alone majors and programs. As a result, most learning in sales is whatever the company does. Companies on average spent 20% more per capita than they do training other positions. Most learning in sales is on-the-job learning that isn’t a challenge in other business areas. Because so much time is spent training

Does the thought of hiring a new salesperson fill you with fear? Do you dread the interview process and reading through resumes? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald helps expedite the process of finding the perfect addition to your team by outlining three characteristics every seller must have.  You want someone curious: When it comes to identifying prospects and their motivations, salespeople need to find the root cause. They need to dig deep, ask the right questions, and find the proper intel to manage their prospects and find sales. Curiosity is asking the right questions that lead to natural conversations. But the suitably curious don’t ask questions that might be offensive or too personal. You want someone resilient. Persistency and a continual drive to work through challenges are critical for sales.  Working in sales means perseverance. The average sale takes between six to twelve touchpoints to move forward, so tenacity and stamina are necessary to succeed in any sales position.  You

Congrats, you just landed a sales job! But should you accept it? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald provides his three tips to consider before you accept that job offer. Connect with their current sales team. Directly asking a sales team what their opinions are at their company is a great way to discover the company culture. They aren’t trying to sell you anything - they have nothing to gain from convincing you it’s a great place when, in reality, it isn’t. Finding the sales team is tremendously easy as well because their entire job is centered around being available.  Determine what customers say about them right now. How do you go about doing this? (It’s easy.) Look through case studies and online reviews to generate names, and reach out to those people on LinkedIn. But why should you do this? It can help you get a good scope of the company and show if they consistently update their work or bank off of case studies from 2008. Look at Glassdoor and Google Reviews for the company. Nobody

Do you wish you had a list of things to avoid when looking for your next sales gig? We brought an expert to do just that - Jasmine Black. As the owner of BrainChild PSM and with over 15 years of corporate sales experience, Jasmine understands both sides of the metaphorical sales coin. In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, she gives you the inside scoop on mistakes B2B sellers should avoid to land their next job. What should B2B sellers avoid when searching for their next gig? Don’t wait for your next opportunity to fall in your lap.  Learn to be assertive without being overly aggressive in interactions throughout the hiring process. Remember, you want to show how you can provide value to the organization, not just show up to the office with your resume. Position yourself as a thought leader in the organization. Tell them challenges you see and explain how you’ve resolved similar issues in the past. Or even provide a plan to utilize in the future once you have the position.  Don’t engage without intenti

The resume is an integral part of the professional world. But while it does show off your prior work experience, it doesn’t show who you are as a person. What motivates you, or why are you applying for that specific job? Simon Tecle, VP of Sales at SyncroMSP, joins us on today’s episode to explain how you can tell your story at your next interview, sans resume, to begin the next step of your career with confidence and success. The resume is not your story. A typical interview response is to admit, “I don’t have experience in x,y, or z.” Don’t let your resume be the anchor in your conversation, especially if you know you lack the experience to capitalize on it. The hiring manager already knows you have a lack of experience, and they wouldn’t be talking to you if that was a deal-breaker. Why do we feel so tied to our resume experience? Because resumes are critical in the corporate world. However, stories convey key skills to a job we don’t put on our resume. Are you ex-military? Talk about your time manageme

Going into an interview can be tough. Whether it’s your very first interview or your twentieth, the nerves never go away completely. You don’t want to sound like an idiot, right? But what if you had a cheat sheet and knew the most common questions salespeople tend to mess up? That’s exactly what we did for today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist. Today we’re joined by Kathleen Steffey, founder, and CEO of Naviga Recruiting, to learn how to answer difficult interview questions and secure your next sales gig. Question One: Anything related to your sales process.  A VP of Sales might ask an interviewee about their selling process from beginning to end. Even if that salesperson knows their approach, they often just don’t know how to articulate it. If someone can’t walk through their process, a leader might think they lack depth or aren’t methodical. Think about your process in advance, write it down, and go from there. Question Two: Tell me where you came in against quota? You have to know when you came in aga

Moving to a virtual workplace means companies can hire better and faster while reducing employee cost and turnover. But are there benefits to returning to the brick-and-mortar model of 2019? In today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald interviews Dan Fantasia, founder of the sales career advancement company Treeline Inc. to discuss what sales professionals look for in their 2021 work environment. What are sales professionals looking for in 2021? Most employees prefer virtual roles over in-person. So if you’re thinking of reintroducing your company to the office, you might want to reconsider. If someone is sold on the remote option, they might start looking for a new opportunity. The pros and cons of having a brick-and-mortar company versus operating remotely: In a virtual job, it’s more challenging to build camaraderie outside the office. However, there are ways to facilitate this relationship.  Dan’s company participated in a virtual wine tasting, and they start each morning with a zoom call to stay

Are you trying to find your first sales job or looking to stand out from the competition to land that first gig? Look no further, because on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, Donald Kelly shares three strategies to find your first sales job. Strategy One: Befriend recruiters for the type of jobs you’re trying to land. Recruiters have a vested interest in finding great people - it means they get more money. So don’t be afraid of interacting with them! To find the right recruiters, go to any recruiting website to see which industries specific people recruit for. Search for them on LinkedIn, connect with them, and see which companies they hire for.  Once you find the recruiters and build a relationship, you’ll have an opportunity ready for you when looking for your next career step. Strategy Two: Network, network, network Your network is your net worth. If you go on social media and ask your network for job recommendations, you’ll get a ton. Not all of them will be good, but there will be opportunities

Before the pandemic, salespeople could hear and learn from their peers through unscheduled interactions. But with water-cooler conversations at an all-time low, how can we continue to learn from our team members? On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re joined by Zach Ballenger, co-founder of Casted, to discuss how companies can continue to foster spontaneous conversations in the virtual office.  What is learning in osmosis? Learning by osmosis uses that desktop chatter you don’t expect to hear. It’s walking by your coworker right when he gives an excellent pitch or when you casually see how your colleague organizes her work on her computer—organic learning through unscheduled interactions. A lot of salespeople don’t want to go back to an office post-pandemic. While there are many benefits to virtual work, losing the ability to develop unscheduled conversations is one element that is unfortunately lost. What are the benefits of osmosis learning? It facilitates unexpected growth opportunities. With

The pandemic changed the way we sell. Or even how do we sell? Using LinkedIn as a resource for BDRs and SDRs to make sales, even during COVID-19, can help lead you to success. Today on The Sales Evangelist Donald is joined by Amanda Staffon and Jason Behnke, former business development representatives at BlueGrace Logistics, to learn how they used LinkedIn throughout the pandemic as a tool to supplement and advance their sales process. Selling in a difficult time While the pandemic threw a wrench in everyone’s professional lives, an opportunity was created: to help those in need.  Amanda and Jason found themselves focusing even more on building relationships and being available for their prospects. With COVID-19, the necessary questions have shifted from understanding company strategies to understanding if their basic needs are being met as an organization. Prospecting today  Now that the end of COVID is in sight, salespeople are running at high speeds to make up for the lull of 2020.  Rotating between pho

President and Co-founder of BombBomb Darin Dawson joins us on today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist to discuss the importance of utilizing video in sales after COVID-19. Running sales marketing and customer success for his video platform company gives Darin key insights to make your post-pandemic sales successful. The importance of video for sales in the post COVID era: The pandemic taught us how to create a new and different customer experience: video. Even once the pandemic ends, people might not be keen to leave the video approach because people can be unique, creative, and (most importantly) themselves.  Any business can replicate and develop new features, but there is no way to replicate people. And video allows people to capitalize on the people and the relationship you’ve built with your prospects. Video is personal, not personalized. Relationships aren’t built over text on a screen: Use video for the back and forth dialogue typically done through text. Video capitalizes on a salesperson’s relatio