As a podcaster, sales geek, and AI enthusiast, I am excited to share my first podcast where I have ChatGPT 4o host and interview me on my latest keynote, “AI and the Future of Sales.”

That’s right… the guest host of this podcast episode is an AI.

As a keynote speaker and author, I have been delivering keynotes on AI for sales since 2018 – 6 years ago I would not have conceived being interviewed by an AI for my own podcast as being possible in such a short time.

Video: ChatGPT 4o Hosts Podcast and Interviews Shane Gibson, Keynote AI Speaker

This is arguably one of the first times an artificial intelligence, specifically OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o, has conducted a podcast interview – it’s definitely the first for a sales podcast.

My goal with this pioneering approach was not only to showcase the capabilities of modern AI but also to show how we can creatively leverage technology in impactful ways as sales professionals.

In this unique episode, I share with the interviewer (ChatGPT-4o) how AI is transforming sales, helping evolve skill sets required for success, and also dig into the future trends that will shape the industry. Here are the key takeaways from this interview:

Will AI Help Sellers or Replace Them?

AI will both help and replace sellers. It’s about leveraging AI to automate and augment our intelligence while doubling down on human skills, aptitudes, and creativity. If sales professionals focus on rote activities and administrative tasks, AI will replace them. However, those who embrace AI to enhance their capabilities will thrive.

The Changing Sales Landscape

I discussed the significant decrease in sales positions over the past few years. Despite fewer opportunities, these positions offer better pay for those who are qualified. This shift can be attributed to the convergence of trends, including AI and automation, multi-channel selling, and the growing need for technical skills.

“The skill set that got us here is not going to be the skill set that gets us to where we want to go in our sales career.”

– Shane Gibson

Adapting to a Multi-Channel Approach

Today’s buyers use over twenty channels to make decisions. I emphasized the importance of adapting to this multi-channel approach by understanding the nuances of each platform and leveraging AI tools to automate and optimize communication across these channels.

“We are now looking at a 20-plus channel universe for a business-to-business buyer.”

The Competency Map for Modern Sales Professionals

In “Real Results in a Virtual Economy,” my co-author Denis Cauiver and I developed a competency map for modern sales professionals. Key competencies include:

• Traditional Selling Skills: Rapport building, objection handling, and closing.
• Right-Brain Sales Skills: Creativity, problem-solving, communication, and empathy.
• Technical Intelligence (TQ): Understanding and utilizing technology, creative prompt writing, and curiosity about new tools.
• Emotional Intelligence in Digital Platforms: Adapting communication styles to different channels.
• Social Networking: Building community and adding value both online and offline.

“Doubling down on creativity and right-brain selling skills is crucial in an AI-driven world.”

Right-Brain Selling

I explained that right-brain selling focuses on creativity, empathy, and innovation—skills that are harder for AI to replicate. As AI automates analytical and process-oriented tasks, sales professionals must excel in these human-centric areas to remain relevant.

“These are the right-brain sales skills around creativity and connecting and working outside of the box, breaking the rules, humor, kindness, giving.”

Ensuring Inclusion in New Job Growth

With AI expected to make millions of jobs redundant but also create new opportunities, I highlighted the importance of combining technical knowledge with emotional intelligence and core people skills. Sales professionals who embrace continuous learning and adaptability will be well-positioned to benefit from new job growth.

“It’s about combining technical knowledge and the willingness to learn new tech tools with emotional intelligence and core people skills.”

The Ironman Analogy

Using the Ironman analogy, I illustrated how AI can amplify sales professionals’ abilities. By leveraging tools like Fathom, which listens to Zoom calls and provides detailed summaries, salespeople can improve their listening skills, create more client-centric proposals, and significantly increase their productivity.

“It’s not about hiring a robot; it’s about taking your humanness and stacking on technology to amplify who you are and what you’re good at.”

AI’s Transformative Potential

Many salespeople use AI for basic tasks like content creation and data analysis. However, I pointed out that AI’s true potential lies in making salespeople smarter. AI can provide data-driven insights, coach salespeople on who to call and when, and enhance overall sales performance. Both Hubspot and Salesforce have extensive use cases and data showing that CRM powered with AI can coach your salespeople to increased win rates of 20% or more.

“AI can actually coach us in the background and make us more effective as people.”

Favorite AI Tools

I shared some of my favorite AI tools that significantly enhance sales and marketing efforts:

• Fathom: AI-based note-taker that summarizes key points from meetings.
• Vidyo.ai: Creates short, shareable video clips for social media.
• Crystal: Analyzes personality profiles to tailor communication strategies.
• ChatGPT: Used for generating ideas and refining content.

“Vidyo.ai helps me do 20 hours of marketing in a week with only two hours of effort.”

Future Trends in Sales

I identified several key trends that will shape the future of sales:

1. Digital-First Selling: Most client interactions will start on digital platforms.
2. Hybrid Selling: Combining online and offline interactions throughout the sales process.
3. Curious Self-Developers: Sales professionals must take responsibility for their own learning and development.
4. AI and Emotional Intelligence: Marrying AI with emotional intelligence will drive sales success.

“Only curious self-learners need to apply for sales.”

Advice for Sales Professionals

My advice for staying ahead in the AI-driven sales landscape includes following thought leaders, trying out new AI tools regularly, and continuously investing in personal development.

“Follow great thought leaders, try out one to two new AI tools every single week, and stay curious.”

Conclusion

This historic podcast episode (at least I think it is) , Shane Gibson (that’s me), and ChatGPT-4o showcases the innovative potential of AI in sales. By leveraging AI tools and focusing on right-brain skills, sales professionals can stay ahead of the curve and thrive in an ever-evolving marketplace. The insights shared provide a roadmap for navigating the future of sales, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning, adaptability, and the integration of AI with human intelligence.

For more insights and discussions on AI and the future of sales, follow my podcast at ClosingBigger.net and explore my sales training resources at SalesAcademy.ca. Connect with me on Instagram and Twitter at @ShaneGibson for updates and valuable content.

To book Shane Gibson to deliver his “AI and the Future of Sales” Keynote Contact Us.

The post ChatGPT 4o Hosts Podcast and Interviews Shane Gibson, Keynote AI Speaker, on the Future of Sales appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This week’s weeks podcast episode is part one of a podcast series on using AI and Emotional Intelligence for Business Success. Joining me is Nick Usborne from BeMoreHuman.ai. Unlike our regular sessions, these podcasts are a collaborative exploration rather than a conventional interview, focusing on how AI impacts sales and marketing through emotional intelligence.

Our topic on this AI Podcast focuses on The Marriage of AI and Messy Humans and why the imperfect human element is vital for successful AI use in sales and marketing.

As always, I’d like acknowledge that both the video and audio editing as well as some of the blog content you’re reading was created with the assistance of AI.

Our Top 10 AI for Business Insights from Shane Gibson and Nick Usborne

In this podcast we discussed a lot of AI implications, challenges and tactics for sales, marketing, and business. With that said here were the 10 big takeaways:

1. Leverage AI for Productivity, Not Replacement: Utilize AI to handle repetitive tasks, freeing up human creativity for strategic thinking and relationship building. This approach ensures that AI enhances rather than replaces human roles, leading to more effective and emotionally intelligent business practices.
   
2. Balance Automation with Human Insight: While AI can streamline processes and increase efficiency, it’s crucial to maintain a balance where human insight plays a key role. Emotional intelligence cannot be replicated by AI, making it essential for tasks requiring empathy and deeper understanding.
   
3. Be Transparent About AI Use: Transparency in using AI tools builds trust with customers. Clearly communicate when AI is being used, helping customers understand the context and ensuring they don’t feel deceived by thinking they were interacting with a human when it was AI.
   
4. Develop AI-Enhanced Personalization: Use AI to analyze data and personalize marketing and sales efforts without losing the unique voice of the brand. This helps in avoiding the “sameness trap,” where brands lose their distinctive appeal by relying too heavily on generic AI outputs.
   
5. Focus on Emotional Intelligence Training: Invest in developing the emotional intelligence of your team. This training helps in understanding and managing one’s own emotions and effectively responding to the emotions of others, which is critical in customer interactions.
   
6. Utilize AI for In-Depth Analysis: Employ AI for complex data analysis, allowing human workers to engage more in decision-making and strategic planning based on insights provided by AI. This partnership can lead to more informed and nuanced business strategies.
   
7. Encourage Human-AI Collaboration: View AI as a collaborative partner rather than just a tool. This mindset encourages ongoing interaction with AI systems to refine outputs and ensure they align closely with human expectations and business goals.
   
8. Guard Against Over-Automation: Monitor the extent of automation to prevent a reliance on AI that could detract from customer experience. Excessive automation, especially in customer-facing roles, can lead to a decrease in customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
   
9. Promote AI Literacy Among Staff: Ensure that all team members understand the capabilities and limitations of AI. This knowledge empowers them to use AI more effectively and identify opportunities for its application within their specific roles.
   
10. Innovate Responsibly with AI: Always consider the long-term impacts of integrating AI into business practices. Responsible innovation involves assessing potential ethical concerns and societal impacts, ensuring that AI deployment aligns with broader corporate responsibility goals.

Join us for our next who AI Podcasts in the series where we will discuss “How to Collaborate with AI” and “How to Lead and Execute with AI.

Here’s the Video of our AI Podcast Episode:

About Shane Gibson Keynote AI Speaker on Sales

Shane Gibson is an international keynote speaker, author and trainer focused on B2B Sales, Social Selling, and AI Sales Technology. He has spoken to over 200,000 people on stages across five continents. His clients include Ford, Coast Capital, Wesgroup Equipment, US Bank (Elavon), The Canadian Armed Forces and hundreds of other organizations globally.

About Nick Usborne

Nick has worked as a copywriter for over 35 years, and have been training digital writers for over 20. His work has included running in-house seminars and training events for companies and organizations in North America and Europe.

Today he trains freelance writers how to combine AI with Emotional Intelligence. Nick has recently expanded on that program to create a AI for marketing training series for marketing groups within companies and organizations.

The post AI Podcast – The Marriage of AI and Messy Humans appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

AI for Sales – The Power of an Exponential Mindset in Sales Organizations

Most of my sales keynotes have been focused on AI over the past six months. There’s a huge interest in investing in AI sales tools but many organizations are missing the exponential sales mindset and organizational DNA required to truly benefit. A quick disclaimer: Parts of this sales podcast summary were written with the assistance of AI and then edited by me.

In this sales podcast episode hosted by Shane Gibson (that’s me), w delve into the importance of this mindset in conjunction with AI technology. The exponential mindset itself is just as crucial as the technology when it comes to driving sales success.

Linear Thinking vs Exponential Thinking in Sales Organizations

There’s a big contrast between linear thinking and exponential thinking within sales organizations. While linear thinking revolves around improving customer satisfaction, exponential thinking is all about building customer communities and leveraging network effects. It also is often focused on growing in one direction incrementally versus expanding in multiple directions and channels at once. In the past this was of course a recipe for fragmented attention and sales disaster – today with AI sales tools this is possible.

Here’s the Youtube version of this AI for Sales Podcast:

Here are some of the key differences between linear and exponential sales strategies:

• Market Approach: Linear companies market where the customer already is, while exponential companies leverage omni-channel expansion to seek out new and untapped opportunities.
• System Management: Linear companies dedicate their efforts to building and managing systems, while exponential companies prioritize automation and scalability of systems.
• Partnerships: Linear companies tend to form traditional industry partnerships, while exponential companies actively seek out uncommon alliances outside their usual channels.
• Market Outlook: Linear companies anticipate market trends, whereas exponential companies seek to disrupt and create market change.
• Sales Departments: Linear companies typically operate with siloed sales departments, while exponential companies foster a sales culture that permeates the entire organization.
• Training: Linear companies focus on training individuals, while exponential companies prioritize collective team learning and sharing of best practices.
• Evolution: Linear companies evolve incrementally, while exponential companies continually reinvent and disrupt themselves.
• Decision-Making: Linear companies possess hierarchical decision-making processes, whereas exponential companies empower distributed decision-making across the organization.

The Mindset and Behaviors of Exponential Sellers:

• Differentiated Buying Experience: Exponential sellers focus on creating a differentiated buying experience, going beyond simply providing a better one.
• Value per Customer Interaction: Exponential sellers prioritize adding more value per customer interaction, rather than simply making more calls.
• Selling to the Entire Buying Network: Exponential sellers understand the importance of selling to the entire buying network, not just the decision maker.
• Proactivity and Leadership: Exponential sellers take a proactive stance and lead the sales process, rather than simply reacting to customer inquiries.
• Discovery Conversations: Exponential sellers prioritize powerful discovery conversations that uncover broader solutions, rather than solely focusing on closing deals.
• Continuous Networking and AI: Exponential sellers continuously network and leverage AI technology to identify new opportunities and expand their pipeline.
• Value-driven Follow-ups: Exponential sellers focus on adding value through follow-ups, going beyond persistent follow-ups that may lack substance.

Amplifying Results with an Exponential Mindset and AI-Powered Sales Tools

Combining an exponential mindset with AI-powered tools has the potential to produce extraordinary results for salespeople and sales organizations. Core sales strategies we need to employ and then embed AI into include:

Focus on the Top 20%: Concentrating efforts on the top 20% of accounts that drive 80% of results maximizes efficiency and effectiveness.

Selling to the Entire Buying Network: By engaging with the entire buying network, salespeople gain valuable insights and influence that can significantly impact sales outcomes.

Mastering Discovery Conversations: Developing the ability to conduct powerful discovery conversations uncovers broader solutions and opens up new avenues for growth.

Continuous Networking and AI: Embracing a proactive approach to networking and leveraging AI technology allows salespeople to continuously expand their pipeline and discover new opportunities.

Automation and Augmentation: Automating mundane tasks and augmenting them with AI capabilities frees up valuable selling time, enabling salespeople to focus on high-value activities.

The key message here is don’t fall in love with AI tools themselves. The real value lies in amplifying the value delivered to customers through an exponential mindset. By combining technological advancements with a transformative exponential sellers mindset, sales organizations can unlock their true potential and achieve remarkable success.

By shifting from linear thinking to exponential thinking, sales teams can tap into a world of possibilities and achieve ambitious goals. It also sets the stage to truly scale using AI. Embracing a differentiated buying experience, prioritizing value per customer interaction, and continuously networking with the support of AI technology are just a few examples of how an exponential mindset can drive unparalleled growth.

The future of sales is AI driven and exponential in its thinking, and those who embrace it will reap the rewards.

Looking for a Keynote Speaker on AI for Sales for your next conference? Contact Shane Gibson here.

The post AI for Sales Podcast – the Exponential Selling Mindset appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This sales podcast episode is focused on shifting our sales performance management from tactical to strategic. Although there are dozens of strategic shifts we can make, today we are focused on three key levers that can impact your personal and organizational sales performance.

Below you will find the video version of the podcast and an abridged version of the transcript. If you’re looking for a keynote sales speaker for your next sales conference you can contact us to book a quick discovery call.

Sales Podcast – Keynote Sales Speaker Shane Gibson on Strategic Sales Performance

[transcript begins]

Transcript:

I want to talk about strategic sales performance improvement today. Many of our sales performance improvements come down to tactics—slight shifts in interactions or key steps in our sales process. When I think of non-strategic sales performance improvement, I think of merely improving or increasing the numbers.

Instead of focusing on numbers, orders, or specific tactics, I want to delve into how we can impact performance improvement within our sales team, ourselves, or individual salespeople by emphasizing a shift in our strategic thinking. I’ve identified three levers that can alter the way we think or approach the marketplace and consistently impact our overall sales performance. While in many cases we’re thinking tactically, I want us to transition into strategy.

Strategy can also be influenced by tactics. For instance, if your organization aims to focus on larger accounts or more intricate, profitable deals, yet our salespeople still employ tactics suitable for the small to medium-sized industry, we won’t achieve our strategic result. This discrepancy shows how tactics can sometimes drive strategy. If we find ourselves able to close specific types of accounts due to the responsiveness of our marketing and sales processes, it might seem like that’s our ideal market. But often, it’s our tactics which target a specific segment.

So, when we strategically consider new targets or opportunities or evolve our external perspective on clientele and brand, it’s vital to ensure our sales tactics align with our sales strategy shift.

The three sales performance management levers I’ll focus on today are:

• Business acumen building: What does a robust business acumen building system look like? Building acumen in our sales team can be a pivotal strategic shift in our sales performance.
• A-Zone Pipeline Management: Those familiar with my seminars or podcasts know I discuss the A-zone or the 80-20 rule frequently. Here, I’ll delve deeper into how we can strategically approach our pipeline with an A-focused mindset and its effects on our sales productivity and performance.
• In-between meetings: One area to enhance our performance, pipeline, referrals, deal size, and renewals is by systematizing and emphasizing what I term “in-between meetings”. These are value-added interactions over time with key accounts outside of and amidst the essential steps in the sales process.

Building Business Acumen in Your Sales Team:

Discussing the first lever—acumen developing system—what is a system? A system encompasses a process, methodology, technology, and accountability. A reliable system has a clear process, robust methodology for each step, is technologically driven, and incorporates accountability to ensure each step is executed correctly. Acumen is often the missing ingredient for potential value sellers and trusted advisors. If my client possesses vast industry knowledge and I only understand the basics, how can I add value to our conversation? It’s nearly impossible. Building acumen is crucial to execute most modern sales strategies. These strategies center around transitioning salespeople from mere order-takers to valuable partners for clients, a shift that can’t happen without honing business acumen.

Too many salespeople believe they need more leads, and often, sales management assumes we need more leads in the funnel. However, the real issue may be the inability to convert, not the lack of leads. A significant cause of this problem can be a lack of business acumen, leading to reduced credibility in customer conversations. Thus, building our business acumen is a continuous process, not a one-time event. It’s not about just learning about our company’s products or market but making acumen building an integral and ongoing part of our process.

So when I think about business acumen, let’s start even with discovery conversations. Number one, before I start picking up the phone or reaching out to clients, do I know our key market segments? And then, do I know their business, their clients, their industry, and their market intimately? As a sales professional, do I understand their top five to ten goals, challenges, and hurdles? And that is of the typical client in my industry. I’m going to drill down through conversation and find them specific to that client.

But let’s say I’m focusing on the telecommunications industry for small to mid-sized telecom companies throughout the United States. For those types of companies, what are the typical five to ten major goals, challenges, and hurdles they’re facing right now in the marketplace? And then, do I know how we solve those challenges uniquely or which of those challenges we solve better than anybody else in the marketplace? So, do I know this? Have I spent time to educate myself? Have I, as a sales leader (and we’ll talk about how to do this later on), provided my team with the insights, resources, and tools to discover these things? And helped them develop the principles and expectations that they’re continually educating themselves as sales professionals around this?

The key, once you know all these things, for me, when I’m doing discovery conversations or meetings, is I want to build questions that unearth those top five to ten things that we can impact in a unique, powerful, and competitive way. So, I’m going to do a needs analysis or discovery meeting. I’m going to ask some of the typical questions a salesperson asks, but not too many.

What I really want to do is focus on asking the questions that unearth those drivers. I’m also going to be continually looking for industry authorities and really geek out on trends, technology, news, and advancements on a regular basis. So, great salespeople today, I believe, are great students of their client, their industry, and their marketplace who self-educate on a nearly daily basis. And that’s how you move from being a four out of ten in knowledge trying to sell to a nine out of ten, to a peer or above who’s specialized in industry insights and knowledge.

So how do we do this? I’m going to give you a real quick shopping list of all the ways that you, as an individual salesperson or as a sales leader, want to put together for your team.

Number one, industry and persona-specific training for our team. I have a client that sells assessment tools into specific industries. One of the things they do with new salespeople is they actually get those salespeople to go through fundamental training around how to be successful in the role of their customer. So, if you were selling into, let’s say, a service manager at a car dealership, they would actually put you through a training program on Service Manager 101. Why? So that you can see through their eyes, have true empathy, and understand not just my product and how it benefits them but understand holistically the day in the life of our ideal decision-maker within our ideal client. Then, our overall business or industry ongoing education. So, do we have that set up? We should have a series of resources, conferences, webinars, you name it, that they can access.

Then, what I’d suggest, something a couple of my clients do, is they hold a state of the industry or region stand-up meeting once a week. Each person on the sales team is responsible for sharing new insights they’ve garnered in the marketplace. It could be shifts from a competitive perspective, regulations, marketplace changes, or consumer shifts—anything that impacts their customer. This includes attending conferences, reading industry magazines and portals, and, at the end of the day, getting to know our clients intimately.

One of the best ways to figure out how your solution impacts your clients positively is to sit down with your happy clients who’ve implemented your solutions long after you’ve closed the deal.

We do this by having client focus and use case meetings. One of the best ways to figure out how your solution impacts your clients positively is to sit down with your happy clients who’ve implemented your solutions long after you’ve closed the deal. Interview them to understand how they’re using your solution, how it’s impacted them, and what you could do better. By doing this regularly with our key accounts, we start to understand and collect great case studies and stories that we can use in our sales process later on.

Listen to calls of other team members, have lunches with our internal team members and experts. As a salesperson, if I’m selling technology for my company, when was the last time the sales team had lunch with the CTO and their product development team to discuss what they’re seeing in the marketplace and what they’re working on and why? This helps in developing a real intimate understanding of your product and your solutions and where it’s evolving to. Additionally, maintain a list of must-follow industry leaders. As a sales leader, do I have a top ten or top five list of industry leaders that my salespeople should follow regularly?

Systemizing Business Acumen Development

So how do I build an Acumen system out of this? First, how do you take this from a great idea to systematizing it, making it part of your training and development?

1. Know your knowledge and competency map. What do your people need to know? What do they need to be experts in and learn continually?
2. Quiz them on industry knowledge. You can do this formally and informally, through written quizzes, questioning them in stand-up meetings, or even role plays to see how well they use industry insights in a sales scenario.
3. Listen to their calls and meetings, check for the application of principles, and even have a scorecard or at least a checklist they need to handle.
4. What are the things they really need to know and check in on a regular basis with them and then make it a KPI or key performance indicator. Then make it part of their compensation and progression plan where they need to stay updated and continually educate themselves.

So why do this? And as a salesperson, if you’re listening to this going, “that’s a lot of pressure on me here”, and do I really want my management leaning on me with my acumen?

They’re doing you a favor! If you can expand your knowledge, become an expert, and a true resource to your client everything from prospecting to opportunity and development to networking, to your discovery calls, to your demos, to your ability to take what they’ve told you and show them why your solution can impact their business in a way that makes them want to do business with you all happen from building that business acumen. So that’s the big one, that’s lever one. And they’re all built upon this in my opinion.

AZone Pipeline Management

The second lever, which I’m not going to spend as much time on here, is the AZone Pipeline management. So we look at our entire pipeline, a lot of times it goes, “how much money or deals is in your sales pipeline?” And I say, “well, I’ve got a million dollars in there potential business.” But then when I start to look at, let’s take a look at everybody who stalled or hasn’t moved in the pipeline, and you kind of shave those off, and you look at who is progressing and moving on, and I’m staying engaged with on a regular basis. That’s a bit more of a realistic look on who’s really in our pipeline. In many cases, some of them are just stuck and they’re going to stay there forever or fall out.

But then on the next level is what’s our strategic pipeline? When I think of strategic pipeline, when I’m really looking at what’s the likely value of this pipeline, one of the biggest indicators for me isn’t the number of dollars, it’s the number of A category opportunities and the dollars associated with them. So our A’s, of course, are 20 percenters. They give us 80% of our business. We should understand who those are within our CRM but also within the marketplace.

And I want to know, if I’m managing performance, I want to actually look at focusing on the A’s. And that means how many do we add on a monthly basis to our pipeline, that salesperson? How many A’s have you taken from a suspect to a prospect to at least booking a first meeting with them? How many have you added to the pipeline at that stage? And then how many have we moved through a fulcrum step?

Your fulcrum sales step in your pipeline

And what I mean by a fulcrum step is depending upon your organization, you’ll have a certain step in your sales process where things begin to flow. So in my business, almost always a fulcrum step is the needs analysis. If I get a client on the phone for a discovery call, if it’s a deal, if there’s a match, if they’re a true A, there’s a high likelihood it’s going to move forward. So that’s a fulcrum step. So how many people have I moved through that step now? For a client of mine it doesn’t matter how many of those beautiful discovery meetings, where we are happy and things seem like they’re going to go well happen – For them, it’s actually the number of quotes and proposals they ship on a monthly basis. That’s their key performance indicator that they can tell in X weeks they’re going to have revenues on the board. So I would look at those two KPIs only and really work as a team to focus on them: how many A’s were adding and how many were moving through that fulcrum step, not how many deals, not how many C’s and B’s, not how many kind of truly not qualified prospects, but the true A’s. And that will give you a better idea from a forecasting perspective.

Now. Why A’s? For me, an A doesn’t mean the biggest prospect, it means one that truly is ideal. You’re ideal for them as a supplier, and they’re ideal for you as a client. This is a truly good fit. And when you find those types of clients, number one, they convert more often, they convert quicker, it’s easier to drive customer success and success stories, they’re easier to maintain. And almost always, a happy A who’s ideal for you is also often our best referral source. So it has this knock-on effect that ah, not only are they larger and more profitable deals in most cases, but they convert more often and quicker and they also precipitate into better referrals and less stress on our customer service system or our actual delivery side of our business, whatever solution we’re selling.

So how do we strategic and tactical with implementing this one performance improvement piece?

1. Define our A’s: understanding who our true A category prospects and clients are.
2. Invest in acumen around those specific A segments. So it’s not about knowing the whole marketplace but becoming an expert in our A category prospects, their clients, their target market.
3. Lock in our calendar from a time perspective, a proper amount of time to actually go after these accounts. I’ve talked about this before, but for me, I think 25% or more time from a conquest perspective should be in our schedule on a weekly basis, but also not just time.
4. Time blocking is important, but allocation of resources. So what I mean by this is that what resources do I need to allocate as a sales leader? What resources do I need to lobby upper management or the marketing team or production or whoever it might be to support the sales team in actually selling to these A’s? Is it getting them to the right events? Is it giving them more resources from a marketing perspective? Is it getting a sales admin person to help the team, a full-time researcher, whatever that might be, what resources they need to focus strategically, and then compensate more for A’s.
5. I would look at even within my performance management from a rewards perspective. It’s great that they brought in a million dollars of revenues, but a certain percentage of it has to be conquest or new business. And within that, a certain percentage should be A accounts based upon the definition you give them. They get a bit of a top-up or additional bonus for focusing on our ideal client that fits where we want our business model to go.
6. And lastly, fine tune collateral budgets and mentorship on this segment. So that’s the second big lever.

In-Between Meetings

So the in between meetings, this is the last one, and this kind of piggybacks on the first two is that many deals are closed and decisions are made outside of the sales or buyer steps in informal meetings, sidebar conversations, the meeting after the meeting, or even bumping into someone accidentally on purpose in the community or an organizational event. Relationships take more effort and frequent engagements than most sales processes allow or need.

So you’re in between key steps of the deal. You’ve got everything. Now there’s this sort of radio silence for a month. what are we doing to fill that silence? Sometimes it’s the in between meetings. It’s value added, just nurturing. But even after a deal is closed and they’re going to buy from us again a year from now or six months from now, are we leaving it till month five? Or do we have in between meetings or value added interactions that actually help increase our mind share, therefore our wallet share and expand the relationship.

When you have meetings that are outside of the typical sales process, you’re actually allowed to or you’re able to practice deep listening without an agenda and build trust. Also, space changes context, mood, and relationship dynamics. So what I mean by this is often in the sales process, maybe I’m always on a zoom call with them and it’s timed and it’s my sort of very this brick background behind me. And from this perspective, there’s not a lot to go on here. There’s no warm fuzzies we get out of this.

What happens if I can take that same client and just let them know I’m going to be in their area, and do they mind if I pop in for 20 minutes and say hello or invite them out for lunch or a coffee or to an event? These types of things where I can move someone out of the office space or a formal, rigid environment and into a more casual, relaxed atmosphere, actually can change the dynamic in the relationship.

One of the things I’ll do is if there’s major events in town occurring that I feel my clients would find valuable, I buy a ticket for myself, but I always buy an extra ticket. Invite out a key client who I know is open to maybe expanding the relationship, and that there would be value in building a relationship for both of us. And I often bring them to event with me. So I never go to event alone, if at all possible.

But many times those in between meetings, those conversations, the casual ones, actually help me understand them better and what motivates them in life and their business. And it really just makes it easier to grow the account, retain the account. And actually, for me, as a sales professional, it makes it more worthwhile. actually people like to do business with people who they like. And that goes for the seller too. I get to know people, I enjoy them, and it just makes it easier and my work more value added as well.

So make it part of your activities. So invite clients to lunch on a frequent basis. Actually set a goal or a KPI for that. How many of my key accounts or potential key accounts am I inviting out on a monthly or weekly basis? Maybe suggesting a meet up between steps of a long sales cycle to review notes, check in, confirm things haven’t changed, make sure that we’re on the right path.

Do an after sales service audit. So this is something we can do, I mentioned this earlier is set a goal that with each account at certain milestones after you’ve sold them, that the salesperson checks in with them again. Even if there’s a Customer Success Team, I think it’s important the salesperson that started the relationship originally does this. Because that’s going to drive maybe a different perspective. Maybe they’ll get some different information than the Customer Success Team gets. They want to share that, of course, but also what it also does in many cases is it plants the seed for referral business as well.

Attend industry events where you can bump into them. So this is another way that you can kind of manufacture these sidebar or informal conversations is making sure you’re out at industry and community events where your key accounts or key prospects are on a regular basis. Engage them on social media often. So you know that I’m a big advocate of social selling and these little casual, quick conversations or messages that we send to people or we congratulate people on stuff and we ask them key questions sometimes that can actually precipitate into a deeper conversation and a really valid reason to pick up the phone and say hello.

And then of course, participate in client events if they’re doing things in the community, if they’re holding festivals and conferences and trade shows, if the CEO is invited to speak at another conference, find a way to be there to engage them and meet their team. And again, create some more in between casual but vital meetings with your key accounts.

Manage these in between meetings by measuring it as part of your cadence. Give people a time and money budget they must spend on A’s. So this is important. Like, here’s your budget from a time perspective. I expect you to be spending 25% of, your proactive time on A’s. In addition to this, here’s your budget per A that you should be spending from a dollar perspective on entertaining them. Lunches, value added interactions, you name it.

And then make a list of gifts, value added tools, meeting types your team can use to engage sort of less formally and have a pre meeting question sheet built. Or at least get them in the habit of pre planning these get togethers so that although it’s a casual meeting, are there two or three key questions I’m going to ask that key account or client that might move the conversation in a certain direction?

So here’s the summary for our sales podcast today:

1. Strategic improvement is not just about improving our activities or tactics, but changing the way we think. And so this podcast is really devoted to thinking like a business person and being strategic about who we engage in, deepening those relationships, but not just as a principle, but developing habits and processes and measurements and rewards around that new thinking. So it’s really about investing, becoming more valuable and credible. That’s about tracking education and it’s application with your team. Making sure that they’re continually educating themselves and that you’ve given them the tools to improve their business acumen continually.
   
2. Switch your focus to your A pipeline. So yeah, you might have a million or 2 million in the pipeline as a salesperson but how many of those are a’s and how many of them have you been in touch with on a regular basis? And this will give us a better idea of our true value of our pipeline. And we switch our focus also by prioritizing time, resources and building that Acumen on our A’s.
   
3. And lastly, we want to establish a deep relationship and better positioning through in between meetings by making them part of our process. So versus a nice to have or an afterthought. With my key accounts and my CRM, I actually want to schedule and look for opportunities to put in between meetings in the calendar. This will allow me to shift from pitch artist to value added and trusted advisor.

[end transcript]

The post Sales Podcast – Strategic Sales Performance Management appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This sales podcast is focused on 12 Non-Negotiable Sales Truths. As a sales trainer and keynote speaker I come across people often who want to short-cut and negotiate the price of sales success. This podcast digs into some of the core truths we have to live with and work within. Following is the podcast transcript and video:

(Video) Keynote Speaker Shane Gibson on Non-Negotiable Sales Truths

[Begin sales podcast transcript]

Today, I want to talk about twelve non-negotiable sales truths. There are also twelve not-so-popular sales truths. When we discuss sales truths, one of the things we consider is our desire for success and what it means to be a successful sales professional. As sales professionals and sales leaders, we’re always seeking an advantage, trying to find a shortcut, and aiming to reduce the time it takes to move from point A to point B. However, in many instances, there are core sales truths and principles that can’t be sidestepped. They’re a reality if we aim for long-term success in sales. I will delve into these in today’s podcast. This is available on YouTube @Shane Gibson. Clips/reels will also be shared on Shane Gibson’s Instagram (@ShaneGibson), as well as @ShaneGibsonLive on TikTok. You can of listen to Shane Gibson’s Sales Podcast on platforms ranging from Spotify to Apple Podcasts and many others.

(Please note that Truth #9 was omitted in the podcast and added to the text below)

Let’s dive into these twelve non-negotiable sales truths.

Sales Truth #1 – You can never be too busy to prospect and work your funnel.

It’s crucial to understand that you can never be too occupied to prospect and manage your funnel. Prospecting is an investment for our future that we must consistently make. Often, I’ve observed (and experienced in my business) professionals getting overwhelmed with inbound tasks, client service, meetings, administrative duties, and other work commitments. We sometimes forget that prospecting is our lifeline. Part of this oversight is because results from prospecting aren’t immediate, especially with sales cycles ranging from three weeks to six months. However, top performers who secure deals regularly were consistently prospecting and maintaining their funnel weeks or even months prior. It’s essential to set aside dedicated time for prospecting and funnel management.

Sales Truth #2 – An inquiry is not necessarily a lead, regardless of their “sentiment.”

An inquiry doesn’t always equate to a lead, no matter the sentiment behind it. It’s easy to get overly enthusiastic about someone filling out a form. Still, the debate between sales and marketing teams regarding what constitutes a marketing-qualified or sales-qualified lead is ongoing. Merely because someone shows interest or belongs to a targeted company doesn’t mean they’re a genuine lead. Various other factors determine an ideal prospect. Therefore, before adding someone to the funnel, ensure they meet the qualification criteria. Sometimes, an immediately available person isn’t the right fit. By effectively filtering these inquiries, we can focus our energies on filling the funnel with the right prospects.

Sales Truth #3 – Discovery is much more than just asking questions.

While client needs analysis and discovery processes emphasize asking pertinent questions, there’s more to it. Some professionals mechanically go through the process: asking a set of questions, nodding, jotting down notes, understanding core pain points, and then drafting a proposal. However, when there’s no callback from the potential client, we must ask ourselves if we established trust and rapport during the meeting. Effective listening, responsive interaction, deeper probing when necessary, and even assertiveness can build trust and credibility. An effective discovery call or client needs analysis involves discerning when to listen, interject, lead, or follow. Ultimately, our aim during discovery is twofold: to understand the client’s deepest business motivations and to establish genuine credibility, rapport, and trust. This requires more than rote learning a script. It calls for empathy, curiosity, and confidence in our abilities to conduct the discovery process efficiently.

Sales Truth #4 – Conversations outside of the sales and buying process are where the magic happens.

Conversations outside of the sales and buying process often yield significant results. While I emphasized the importance of questions during discovery, much of the progress in fostering relationships with clients often takes place outside official meetings. It’s the impromptu conversations after providing a solution, the moments between formal meetings, the chance encounters at social events, and other unexpected engagements that make a real difference. These interactions solidify your role as a trusted advisor and partner, establishing deeper value, credibility, and connection. Genuine relationships often blossom outside the confines of a structured sales or buying process, making it crucial to invest time in understanding both the client and their organization.

Sales Truth #5 – You rarely are talking to “the” decision maker.

More often than not, you aren’t interacting with just one decision maker but multiple buying influencers. This is backed by Gartner studies which, over the years, indicate a steady increase in the number of individuals influencing B2B decisions. A few years back, this number averaged around five and a half, but today it’s closer to seven. The notion that connecting with a single “right person” or “champion” is sufficient is misleading. To truly grasp a client’s needs and make a sale, it’s essential to identify, understand, and engage with all the influential stakeholders. This involves time, trust-building, and navigating gatekeepers. Moreover, once a network is established, it’s imperative to consistently nurture all these relationships to ensure not only acquisition but also the retention and growth of key accounts.

Sales Truth #6 – You don’t get good sales results by scaling the mediocre.

Achieving substantial sales results isn’t about magnifying mediocre efforts. This principle is glaringly evident in the current scenario, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, where many are resorting to automation and mass messaging. Sending generic messages to large numbers with a minuscule response rate isn’t an effective strategy. While such an approach may yield some positive replies, it simultaneously alienates a vast majority who feel the outreach lacks personalization and relevance. The key isn’t necessarily to increase efforts exponentially. While a certain level of commitment and discipline is crucial, refining one’s approach is even more vital. Resorting to a strategy that relies on bombarding the marketplace in the hopes of securing a handful of positive outcomes is short-sighted and harms the brand reputation in the long run.

Sales Truth #7 – Practice does not make perfect; repeating and training in what works does.

Practice does not make perfect. I learned this as a martial arts lesson from my teacher, Fred Shadian, many years ago. Practice doesn’t make perfect; it’s perfect practice that makes perfect. If I repeatedly practice the wrong thing, use a cheap imitation of a good sales approach, or recite a mediocre script, I won’t improve. Instead, I’ll become more deeply ingrained in the wrong method. What’s truly important is that repeating and training in proven methods helps us improve. This entails investing in best practices, sharing them, seeking external benchmarks, and adopting processes that have been shown to work. It isn’t merely about repetition or endlessly making calls hoping to improve. There’s a more effective approach that prevents us from forming bad habits or enduring terrible sales experiences.

Sales Truth #8 – They’re not your leads, customers, or territory.

This point is crucial. From a managerial perspective, I’m somewhat irked when I hear salespeople claim “my leads,” “my customer,” or “my territory,” suggesting that they don’t need to share information because it’s all about them. In reality, those leads, customers, and territories aren’t theirs. If you’re employed by a company to work in that market and are compensated with a salary and commission, those leads and customers belong to the company’s CEO or its shareholders. Your role is to cultivate opportunities for the organization. I mention this because salespeople often become possessive, which hinders teamwork. This possessiveness can cause them to miss broader opportunities to utilize the entire organization to serve clients. It’s essential to think as a team player, focusing on providing the best solutions and retaining clients for the long term, rather than as a lone wolf.

Sales Truth #9 – Sales isn’t fair; opportunities are given to those that convert.

Sales isn’t fair. Within sales organizations that have inbound leads, a common comparison occurs among the sales team. Salespeople tend to “sniff around,” trying to discern if their colleagues receive more or perhaps larger account leads than they do. The prevailing notion is that every salesperson should get an equal distribution of leads or lucrative opportunities. However, in practice, sales organizations often adjust their lead distribution, directing more leads to those who have proven to convert them effectively. For example, if I spend $100 on a lead, and one salesperson can generate $100,000 from 100 leads, while another only produces $20,000, it’s clear that distributing the leads equally isn’t the best strategy. Sales professionals should realize that success isn’t just about accumulating more leads, but rather maximizing the potential of each lead they receive. Often, management observes and prioritizes lead distribution based on the demonstrated ability to convert. Any sales manager not allocating the most promising opportunities to the best converters is effectively leaving money on the table. It may not seem fair, but this is the economic reality of sales.

Sales Truth #10 – Expertise beats tenure in sales.

In sales, expertise holds more weight than sheer tenure. Duration alone doesn’t ensure top performance. My father once pointed out an intriguing perspective regarding someone with “20 years of sales experience”. He asked if the individual truly had two decades of varied experience or just one year’s experience repeated 20 times. Had this person genuinely evolved and learned over time? This reminds me of an experience with a high-end car dealership, where a newcomer to sales, previously in marketing, outperformed many seasoned professionals. This person was eager to learn, thoroughly studied the products and market, and was receptive to innovative sales techniques. Merely having years of experience under one’s belt doesn’t guarantee success. As the marketplace and competition evolve, it’s imperative to continually hone one’s expertise.

Sales Truth #11 – Reaching your sales goals will be more challenging than anticipated; expand your understanding of effort.

Attaining your sales goals is likely harder than initially expected. I’ve found this in my own endeavors, such as when I embarked on writing a book. I tend to form a mental picture of the effort it would take to complete a project within a given timeframe. Yet, based on my past experiences, I’ve often underestimated the time, effort, obstacles, and energy involved. Thinking about my major clients over the past two years, I’ve realized that the effort I had initially anticipated was consistently 25-30% short of the actual requirements. Recognizing upfront that ambitious sales targets will typically demand more resources, effort, and learning than initially expected can set one up for success.

Sales Truth #12 – AI isn’t a magic bullet, but neglecting it will hamper your competitiveness.

AI, while potent, isn’t a panacea. I’ve noticed that some professionals believe they can solely depend on AI for tasks such as writing emails, conducting research, or even drafting blog posts. Often, the result, sans personal input, is generic content that melds into the marketplace background. This content can lack the human touch or the distinct creativity that sets an expert apart. However, on the flip side, AI offers remarkable advantages. For instance, when I use AI-powered plugins in my CRM, what previously took 10 minutes of manual research now takes mere clicks. With AI tools like “fathom” during my Zoom calls, note-taking has become automated. It prepares summaries, lists action items, and with minor edits, I can share these with a client, saving me about 20 minutes per meeting. These benefits, ranging from competitive intelligence to automating tedious tasks, are invaluable in daily sales and client service activities.

[end sales podcast transcript]

The post Sales Podcast – 12 Non-Negotiable Sales Truths appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

Equipping our team with social sales training and sales enablement programs is vital. Social media and social networks belong to the entire company…

Not just the marketing team.

Have a social sales enablement process in place that equips your sales team with the tools, insights and strategies they need to be effective social sellers.

Social selling at its purest form is simply the act of talking to and engaging customers and prospects on the internet. We want our sales team connecting with and engaging customers where they spend their time and attention.

A solid social sales training and enablement program includes:

1) A social media policy that guides and informs the team
2) The right tools to equip your social sellers
3) Social sales training and coaching on best practices
4) Key Performance Indicators so you can track and improve activity and progress

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shane Gibson (@shanegibson)

The post Investing in Social Sales Training appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This sales podcast episode is on the fundamentals of sales leadership with focus on behavioural change and sales coaching. I have taken the transcript from the sales podcast episode and am providing it below with minimal formatting or grammatical changes. It’s rather conversational but I’m providing it to those of you who prefer to read or want to highlight specific statements. It’s based upon the lessons I have accumulated working with sales organizations and delivering leadership training programs over the past 20+ years. Following is the full video version of this Podcast and below that is the transcript:

Here’s the transcript:

Transcript for “Sales Leadership – leading behavioural change through coaching and powerful questions”

I’m shifting to both video and audio, so you’ll be able to find the video of this podcast on YouTube. But I’m also going to be sharing those on my Sales Academy website as well. You can find that at Salesacademy.ca.

So, my goal, of course, is to take this content I’m creating in my podcast and distribute it further and in different mediums depending on how you like to learn. I’m also going to be throwing these onto my Instagram channel @ShaneGibson and my TikTok channel @ShaneGibsonLive if you want to access this content in sound bites versus a long podcast.

Today, I’m going to focus on the fundamentals of coaching skills as well as the coaching process for sales leaders in particular. Now, if you’re a salesperson listening to this and you start to check the boxes around what your leader isn’t doing for you, this is really not what it’s about. In no organization is the coaching process perfect. It’s constantly evolving. And sometimes, as a salesperson, you have to step up to the plate and proactively seek that coaching from your peers and your sales leader in your organization. By no means is this meant to be an exhaustive list of criteria you should use to judge whether your leader is any good, but rather an indication of what gaps exist in your organization and where you might need to seek help. And of course, for sales leaders, I’m hoping this gives you a foundation to build upon, so you can have a more solid process in your sales coaching.

The Future of Sales Leadership – Coaching, Technology, and Management Skills

Let’s talk about leadership in general. Sales leadership, first and foremost, is all about driving results. And at the end of the day, driving results is often about behavioral change. So, as a sales leader, the better you become at sales leadership, the better you really are at driving behavioral change, whether it’s in your leaders, if you’re managing a group of sales managers, or your direct line salespeople, if you’re a sales manager yourself. Leadership truly builds people who then build the business. That’s the real core. Leadership also fosters innovation, accountability, momentum, and organizational growth. One of the most powerful parts of leadership is the coaching skill set—the ability to develop people.

With that said, I also know great leaders and great coaches who fail to meet their potential or sustain their organizational growth and success because they lack management skills. A great sales leader is one part coach, one part manager, and, I would argue, one part CTO or Chief Technology Officer. But we’ll delve into that at another time. Today, our focus is on coaching.

Before we delve deeper, let’s consider management skills. Managers maintain systems that sustain the vision. They create systems that grow that vision, and they manage both people and processes. Great managers are often excellent communicators, and they excel at developing systems and processes. It’s also about accountability. Thus, effective managers often have robust systems in place and demonstrate habits and disciplines centered on accountability. They are acutely aware of return on investment and adeptly organize their efforts around their goals. They also bring stability, credibility, and consistency to the table.

It’s not just enough to be a visionary leader or an exceptional coach; one must also develop these fundamental management skills. Many of us, having transitioned from Salesperson to Sales Manager, then to Director of Sales and eventually VP of Sales, might have bypassed these traditional management skills. We might rely heavily on our ability to sell and inspire others. But there’s a threshold we’ll inevitably hit unless we commit to a more systematic approach to sales leadership.

90% of Motivating Your Sales Team is the Why

In my opinion, a significant portion of success in sales, as mentioned earlier, revolves around facilitating both behavioral and organizational change, primarily because we always need to address and adjust to the dynamics of the marketplace. And if we’re going to effectively communicate our vision, we should remember that understanding the ‘why’ comprises 90% of achieving any goal.

90% of getting your salespeople to shift their behaviors, habits, or to implement new disciplines or processes is often about effectively communicating the “why.” When we communicate our vision, I think the first step is asking, “Is it SMART?” Of course, SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. However, what’s missing in the SMART acronym? It also has to be contextual. How do I relate what’s beneficial for the salesperson with the impact it has on the organization and the significance of the team overall?

To succeed merely because “upper management wants it” isn’t enough. We truly need to understand, inspire, communicate, and contextualize significant shifts in the organization. Are you, as a leader, inspired by it? If you’re going to communicate your organizational sales vision or a major goal or initiative, you are the first person that needs to buy into it. Have you linked it to their individual needs? And is it easy to understand? A famous quote suggests that if it’s too complicated to explain, it’s too challenging to implement. If you can’t explain it succinctly, you probably don’t understand the topic well enough.

So, when I’m communicating a sales vision or goal, I aim to contextualize it in such a way that I can rally my team around it. If my communication feels top-down and isn’t tied to their values or the overarching “why” for them or their team, I’ve missed the mark. I won’t get buy-in from the team.

Coaching for Sales Leadership Success

Now, let’s talk about coaching. This is one of the fundamental tools I’ll use to communicate vision and induce behavioral change. It’s intriguing how many sales leaders claim they are “too busy” for coaching. In my opinion, they’re not too busy; they’ve simply deprioritized it. They would never skip a meeting with their company’s CEO, yet many often neglect or postpone scheduled one-on-ones with their sales team.

A healthy sales organization’s key performance indicator suggests that the sales leader doesn’t just check numbers and projections but also conducts meaningful one-on-one developmental meetings. I challenge many sales leaders to move beyond coaching to a spreadsheet or dashboard. That’s not coaching; that’s ensuring compliance. Instead, focus on generative coaching which involves skill development and specific deal insights.

Coaching should align with the process. Successful sales coaching emphasizes the qualitative aspects of your key performance indicators. For instance, the quantitative aspect of a discovery call might involve asking seven key questions. The qualitative aspect, however, focuses on the manner of questioning, depth of understanding, and efficient note-taking. By integrating these qualitative aspects, we can offer a structured learning regimen to the whole team.

Sales scorecards and a corresponding sales playbook can help. By documenting best practices and scoring each step, we can produce projections based on how well the sales team executes these steps. Being formal is vital. Drawing a parallel with martial arts, I’ve realized that just as training requires regimented processes and timed check-ins, so does sales coaching.

The Martial Art of Structured Coaching

My martial arts mentor, Fred Shadian, taught me this importance. Fred Shadian actually lives on Saturna Island. No matter how you look at it, it takes about 5 hours to reach him from my home, involving a couple of ferries, some driving, and other logistics. Because of this, we started doing Zoom check-ins. These are at a specific time each week. I have a series of specific activities I undertake, which he evaluates, measures, and coaches me on.

The combination of accountability and structured practice with specific exercises in a short period has refreshed and sharpened my skills. I had been pondering the idea for a while and practiced sporadically on my own for several months. But the moment I incorporated structure and accountability, I noticed improvements in my skills, awareness, and other aspects. My confidence also increased due to a consistent feedback loop. Good sales coaching operates similarly. As sales leaders, we need to prioritize formality.

Sales Coaching Self-Assessment

One thing worth mentioning is the SalesAcademy,ca sales coach assessment. If you go to Salesacademy.ca/Salescoachassessment, there’s a downloadable PDF available for free. This document allows you to evaluate your sales coaching skills and the processes of your organization to identify areas needing improvement.

Here are steps to proactively formalize your approach:

1. At the start of each month, proactively schedule one-on-one meetings in your calendar with each team member. I’d recommend doing this bi-monthly. But if you’re managing a large team, perhaps over six to eight people, you might only manage monthly sessions.
   
2. Organize brief, targeted weekly sessions, possibly just 15 minutes each, for regular check-ins.
   
3. Utilize a coaching prep form. My form prompts responses to questions about achievements, challenges, and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Salespeople fill this out before our sessions, ensuring they are engaged in their growth while also allowing me as the coach to prepare adequately.
   
4. It’s vital to track your commitments and proactively remind and encourage your team. Have the salesperson note down promises made during the meeting and send them to you via email. By systematizing this process, you ensure follow-ups, which often get overlooked due to busy schedules.

It’s also worth noting that as salespeople, and even entrepreneurs, begin to reap the benefits of coaching, they often attribute all the success to themselves. They may neglect the behavioral shifts brought about by the coaching. Hence, as a leader, it’s crucial to summarize the impacts of the coaching sessions on their sales results. This isn’t about claiming credit but highlighting the value of the coaching relationship.

Being an effective sales coach

On the subject of coaching, it’s about inducing behavioral change. Trust is foundational. Questions of credibility, integrity, and a proven track record in sales or sales leadership are paramount. Beyond this, the sales team must feel that their leader supports them. If coaching isn’t systematic, you’ll struggle to maintain momentum. Establishing routines, utilizing assessments, employing forms, maintaining credibility, and setting a consistent cadence are pivotal to the success of your coaching endeavors.

Being an effective coach means:

1. Setting clear goals and success criteria.
2. Transparently communicating while respecting privacy boundaries.
3. Being versatile enough to switch between task-focused and person-focused coaching.

In essence, while the process and business side of sales is vital, personal aspects like mindset, empathy, and personal challenges equally impact performance. A skilled sales coach comprehends this duality and acts accordingly.

Now, not saying you need to be a therapist, but there are times when issues arise that are beyond our competency set. In such instances, referring someone to professional help might be the best course of action. However, at the bare minimum, we should be good listeners, exhibit empathy, and provide constructive feedback.

Unfortunately, I can’t delve into this deeply today, as this podcast episode is already jam-packed. That said, “Radical Candor” is an insightful book on delivering direct and effective feedback. Both leaders and their teams can benefit from its teachings. If everyone agrees to approach each other with candor and empathy, trust and transparency will thrive. Effective feedback fosters an environment where individuals can be both vulnerable and direct, eliminating the fear of treading on eggshells or suppressing feelings and thoughts.

So, what makes for an effective coaching process?

Starting with a Benchmark: Begin with an assessment, plan, or benchmark. A strategic sales plan for the year or quarter is an ideal starting point. Incorporate a mindset plan, assessing aspects like confidence, personal development, communication skills, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Determine developmental goals for the next 6 to 12 months.

Understanding Connection: Every individual is unique. Recognizing their learning style, personality profile, motivators, and energy drainers is essential. This insight will allow the coaching process to adapt to each individual’s specific needs.

Setting Clear Criteria: Coaching must be goal-oriented, aiming to make impactful shifts both personally and professionally. Short-term objectives should hone in on specific competencies, attitudes, or behaviors.

Having a Structured Timeline: Regularly scheduled monthly coaching sessions, punctuated by laser-focused coaching sessions, can make a difference. These sessions delve deep into major challenges and also provide quick tactical solutions.

Using a Formal Process: Implement templates for feedback and tracking progress.

Contrary to what many believe, coaching isn’t just doling out advice based on personal experiences. Rather, it’s about molding someone’s thought process, shifting their perspective. The art of questioning plays a pivotal role here. While it’s impossible to run through all the valuable questions in one session, introducing a few of these during coaching can induce profound shifts in a salesperson’s mindset.

Here are 40 Sales Coaching Questions for Sales Leaders:

1. What went well in that specific meeting or what went well this week?
2. What didn’t go as planned?
3. What factors do you think contributed to that?
4. If it went well, why did it go well?
5. What could you do differently next time?
6. If you were in the same situation next time, what would you have done differently in advance?
7. Where do you think you need more coaching or support on that?
8. Are there any products or services you don’t feel 100% comfortable talking about within our company that we’re selling?
9. What was the best sales interaction you had this week?
10. What were some of your toughest sales or customers this week?
11. What did you learn from it?
12. What would you change?
13. What are you trying to achieve on these 30 calls you’re making?
14. How can you create more personally developed leads within your existing activities?
15. Outside of the business, outside of the store, outside of the location?
16. In the last meeting you were with that client, what type of buying signals were they giving off?
17. In that meeting, you didn’t ask for the next step, and you’re now trying to set that appointment. What happened where you weren’t able to set the next appointment?
18. Can I make a suggestion for next time?
19. At what point did you feel the meeting got away from you?
20. What do you think happened?
21. What could you have done instead?
22. Let’s take a look at your calendar for the next week?
23. Look at your calendar last week. What could we shift for next week to make your time management better?
24. When was the last call with that particular client?
25. Who was on it?
26. Have you identified the key decision makers?
27. Do you understand the three to five goals related to their business goals?
28. Which next steps did you agree to?
29. What are you discussing next?
30. Have you talked about pricing yet?
31. What is your process for whatever it is?
32. Let’s map out your next 120 days for this account. What does that look like?
33. What is it going to take to close this large account?
34. What do you need from me to help you land this deal?
35. Let’s take a look at your most wanted list. Top clients. How many moved a stage in the sales process in the last month?
36. What are you doing to move them forward next month?
37. What factors might hold this deal back?
38. How can we mitigate them?
39. What can we do now?
40. How can I support you?

These questions are a mix of tactical and strategic inquiries aimed at understanding, guiding, and assisting salespeople in their roles.These, among many others, can become instrumental in steering conversations towards growth and development.

An essential point of discussion is the idea of being coachable. Dr. Denis Cauvier, author of “Coachable,” stresses the importance of leaders being open to coaching themselves. If a leader isn’t growing or evolving, it seeps into the team’s morale and productivity. Leaders should continually seek out new learning opportunities, mentors, and coaches, ensuring they remain relevant and valuable to their teams.

This has been Shane Gibson’s podcast from closingbigger.net. [end sales podcast transcript]

The post Sales Leadership Podcast – leading behavioural change through coaching and powerful questions appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This podcast episode is focused on sales leadership. As a sales leader, whether we are a CSO, VP of Sales or frontline Sales Manager – we want A-level results from our sales teams.

Here’s a hard sales leadership truth we need to realize:

You can’t get A-level results with C & D players on your team. You need a team full of A-level players or players that are willing to pay the price to become an A.

It’s my belief that we can talk about A-level goals and exceeded targets but if we tolerate C and D level mindsets and behaviours it will erode the momentum and sales productivity of the entire team.

In this sales leadership podcast I dive into how to segment your sales team and where to invest your time. I also dig into when you want to move people up, across or out QUICKLY.

Identifying the Players:

A Players: The Absolute Performers A players represent the top 20% of your team, contributing to 80% of the sales results and energy within the organization. These individuals possess a growth mindset, are eager to develop personally and professionally, and understand the importance of teamwork. They strive for more than just closing deals; they seek to contribute to something larger, making them invaluable assets to your team.

B Players: The Beneficial Team Members B players are open, aware, and show significant potential for growth. They may face challenges such as lack of confidence, newness to the market, or a need for skill development, but they are receptive to growth and improvement. Investing in B players can yield substantial returns as they have the potential to ascend to A player status with the right guidance and support.

C Players: The Convenient Players C players tend to be complacent, content with their current status, and lack the desire to grow. They may not actively harm the team’s performance, but they do not contribute to innovation or energy either. For C players, the choice is clear: grow or go. As a leader, it is crucial to help them make this decision swiftly to maintain team momentum.

D Players: The Disengaged Sales Team Members D players are in urgent need of change; they either need to adjust their attitude and performance quickly or exit the team. Their negative impact can erode team morale and drain energy from leaders that could be better invested in A and B players. Swift action is required to address the issues posed by D players to preserve the team’s integrity and performance.

Understanding the different types of players in your sales team is crucial for effective team management and success. By identifying and investing in A and B players, addressing the issues posed by C players, and swiftly dealing with D players, you can create a high-performing, motivated, and energetic sales team. Remember, the key is not just to manage but to lead and inspire your team towards growth and excellence. This also means making the hard decisions to protect your A’s and B’s from being pulled down by a C or D level sales culture.

The post Sales Leadership Podcast: Building A High Performing Sales “A-Team” appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

Today’s sales podcast is focused on helping B2B Sales organizations prepare to succeed in 2023 and beyond. As a keynote speaker at sales kick-off events I get to look into the mindset and outlook of many sales organizations as they plan for 2023. The focus for many this year comes down to building resilient sales teams and strong daily disciplines.

Sales success in 2023 is not going to look like 2021 or 2019. It’s going to be harder, and even if it isn’t your competitors think it is. We need to take massive action, event if it’s just to build a new discipline. Tough and competitive times are when great salespeople and great sales cultures are built.

Following is my outline covering the key points in this B2B Sales Podcast:

9 B2B Sales Kick-Off Strategies:

1) Revisit your ICP (Ideal Client Profile)

• Your market has changed
• Your existing client needs have changed

2) Drill down on your ICP needs, risks, missed opportunities, and align them with your solutions.

3) Improve your lead nurturing game

• More contact
• More variety
• Better context
• Better timing
• More relationship
• More discrimination

4) Expand while your competitors and contracting.

• Your competitors are hunkering down and hatching, take advantage of this.
• Get out and make some noise
• Look for who has laid of salespeople – unhappy customers and abandoned leads

This includes knowing why people leave suppliers and scan the market for:

• Change in executives
• Supply change problems
• Change in salesperson
• Lack of innovation or broad solutions
• Do your price, quality, function grid

5) Go broad on lead awareness and monitoring and invest in tools like Sales Navigator to look for signals

• Hiring
• Financing
• Mergers
• Product launches
• News

6) Build your own in-bound marketer, brand, resource, hub, & community member

• Curate and Create content
• Engage in conversations
• Be a fan
• Get out in the community

Tell stories using video, most industries don’t have a well known salesperson that is building a brand using short-form video such as TikTok’s, Reels, and Shorts. These videos also get a lot of engagement on LinkedIn. Short-form video can include:

Advice

Events

Personal stories

7) Commit to daily outbound omnichannel disciplines at all stages of pipeline:

• Leads / Suspects
• Prospects
• Discovery
• Proposal follow-ups
• Contracts
• Customer engagement

8) Build your business acumen – clients are more sophisticated, opportunities are larger, and you need to differentiate:

Educate yourself on your clients

• Know their clients
• Know their solutions
• Know their competitors

Know the regions and markets

• Politics
• Industries
• Culture

Know your own solutions, applications, history, limitations, and the future direction. What vision would your CEO or CMO paint for the company. Get good at telling that story.

9) Have a strategic sales plan or personal sales playbook

• Map your process
• Know your best practices
• Reverse engineer your quota down to daily disciplines
• Commit to and share your KPI’s with your leader and peers and track daily

These 9 things you can focus on to make sure your B2B Sales efforts are successful in 2023. If you’re looking for a sales keynote speaker or sales training for your team in 2023 you can reach Shane Gibson at [email protected].

The post 9 B2B Sales Kick-Off Strategies for 2023 and Beyond – Podcast appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This podcast was inspired by a sales troll on TikTok. I posted a TikTok video on “Why sales is not like dating.” The response was 99.5% positive but there’s always one guy out there. His response was “Sales is like dating …. value-based selling is weak.” This got me to think of this analogy and why it’s so popular and also how sales and expectations of salespeople have changed significantly.

In this sales podcast I dig into how much sales has moved from a “skill set” to a true profession, one where today you can even become a certified sales professional.

True sales professionals are no longer about tactics and explaining the value of their product. The sales professional today knows they need to partner with their clients to create value. It’s a collaborative process and in many cases the customer knows just as much about the topic as we do.

Here’s the original TikTok Sales Video:

@shanegibsonlive Sales is not like dating. It’s an innacurate analogy. #sales #dating #b2bsales #salestips ♬ original sound – Shane Gibson

The post Sales Podcast: Moving from Extraction to Collaboration Based Selling appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.

This sales podcast episode is focused on shifting our mindset to one that drives sales success. Sales process only works as well as the mindset of the person using it.

Unproductive mindsets are often what is holding back exceptional people from reaching their true potential. Developing an empowered mindset can you produce greater results, consistently.

Here’s a list of common negative sales mindsets and a set of empowered mindsets that can help you take your sales career to the next level:

 Negative Sales Mindset Empowered Sales Mindset1Reactive mindset1Pragmatic mindset2Passive mindset2Proactive mindset3Over optimistic mindset3Grounded mindset4Bargaining mindset4Committed mindset5Defensive mindset5Curious mindset6Win / lose mindset6Contribution mindset7Enabled mindset7Self-equipping mindset8Group thinker mindset8Self-driven mindset9I know this mindset9Learners mindset10Obstacle finder mindset10Outcome focused mindset

The post Sales Podcast: 10 Mindsets for Sales Success appeared first on Shane Gibson's Podcast – Social Selling – B2B Sales and Influence.