Episode #392: Winning Complex Enterprise Sales

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootHow is your process similar or different to the process for winning complex enterprise sales?

In this episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale bring in an expert who has spent years winning big deals and teaching others how they can do it too.

Bud Suse spent 12 years with IBM before moving into sales management for a start-up, spending hours in well-known sales training programs along the way. He realized that the success in large deals comes from defining a process, testing it and repeating it.

How does your process stack up?

In today’s episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bud shares the best practices from his second (and just released) book, Winning Complex Enterprise Sales. If you’re looking to improve your success with the big whales, this episode is for you.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

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Episode #391: Stumping Your Sales Trainer

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootWhat happens in a training session when Bill or Bryan doesn’t have the answer?

In a special episode of “Stumpology,” veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale bring their toughest client issues to each other to solve.

How do you handle it when the client can’t get away from selling features/functions?  How can you create the space with your sales team to be able to educate them?

In today’s episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, the teachers become the students (of each other). They will help you look at your own process and messaging to determine if you’re communicating through your buyer’s eyes or your own, and how you can meaningfully influence those around you.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

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Episode #390: How to Generate More Leads

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootAre you looking for ways to generate more leads? (because who isn’t?)

In today’s episode, veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale respond to a specific request to provide four things sales people can do right now to generate leads.

Have you considered hosting a marketing event for your prospects (not a sales event, a marketing event)?

Are you using your current client’s words and testimonials to help you communicate what you do to your prospects?

In this episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan give you four actionable things you can start working on immediately to help you increase your leads.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

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Episode #356: How To Be Your Own Marketing Department

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advancedsellinpodcastgraphicbootDoes your marketing department actually help you generate leads? Veteran sales trainers Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale take on the challenge of lead generation… whether you have a full marketing department or none at all.

What do you do when you’re a high-level sales pro without a marketing department?

Does your marketing department spend most of their time doing promos and not really generating any actual leads for you?

In today’s episode of The Advanced Selling Podcast, Bill and Bryan walk you through building your own marketing plan— even if you DO have a marketing department to support you. They teach you what it means to “think inbound” and how to establish your own Voice of a Customer series. If you’ve been frustrated by marketing support (or lack thereof), be ready to take notes and brush up on your mad marketing skills.

Also mentioned in this podcast:

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3 Videos That Will Radically Shift Your Client Positioning and Results

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As you begin to think about 2016, I want you to consider three things to commit to next year.

I want you to create…yes I said “create”…3 videos for the expressed purpose of landing new clients.

How can videos help me land clients? Well….are you ever in for a surprise! Let me start with a blanket statement. OK, it’s my opinion….but a statement it is.

Video will help you tell your story, compel people to seek you out, and help you position yourself properly prior to client contact. 

VIDEO 1

Last week, I was in a coaching session with two sales leaders and their lead generation person. In the conversation, I found that they’re asking prospects to fill out a form on the web, then hit SUBMIT. Then, their lead person emails them back to set up a call. Read more

Building Your Platform To Make Selling Easy(ier)

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Last week, I got called by a CPA firm who wanted training for their people. This you must know: CPAs are not very good at selling. It’s not that they don’t have the expertise. That’s not it at all.

It’s that selling spooks them. It’s not in their comfort zone.

So, when I get a call from a professional services firm (or any company), I always start with one simple question: Do you have a platform?

Platform

After the weird looks they give me, I go on to educate them to what a “Platform” is.

Platform: definition, A position in the market that you occupy where people look to you for expertise.

Physical Platform

Just as you would speak at a conference from a podium (platform) the same thing applies here. In the physical world, it is you speaking from the stage, on a topic that you have some degree of expertise in, where all eyes are on you.

There, you don’t have to fight for attention. You ARE the show.

In the sales & marketing world, your platform could be a variety of things. LinkedIN is a platform. Any kind of social media could be a platform (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). Your email list is a platform. A podcast is a platform.

Simply, it is a place where you command attention of the people you’re trying to reach.

Your platform is a positioning tool that raises you above the din of competition and market confusion.

You Have One Right Now, But You May Not Know It Read more

The Problem With Idea Generation – And a Solution

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More ideas are not better. I know there is a saying, “If you want to come up with a great idea, come up with lots of ideas.”

Ideas

But I see Presidents and Salespeople generate idea after idea – and yet have little to show for them. So what happens. Here’s my take.

My sense is that the person that has the idea (the creator) is seldom the person who will implement the idea and bring it to profit. I didn’t say “never,” I said seldom.

So the idea-creator needs to have either a) someone around him/her who can flesh out the idea before investing too much time dreaming about it. Or, b) a system that walks them through the ‘fleshing out’ process. Read more

Do You Recognize These 5 Warning Signs of a Bad Prospect?

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There is trouble ahead for you. I bet that right now you have prospects in your sales pipeline that are bad prospects. And it’s time for you to get rid of them.

Bad Prospect Warning Signs

In my sales training and coaching practice, I get clients who call me to strategize on how to close deals. One such client called me this morning. I won’t go into the verbatim of our discussion, but it got me thinking about how we ignore warning signs.

We get so enthusiastic and “needy” that we refuse to look at the truth.

Here are Five Warning Signs that indicate you’re in trouble: Read more

Have a Discussion that Generates Real Leads

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(This is a concept that will be discussed in our upcoming webinar, “21st Century Lead Generation,” a live event March 28,  12p EST) 

I struggled for years thinking that we sales and marketing professionals play too loosely with the term lead. To me, a lead isn’t a true lead until there’s a conversation with the prospect that determines if they have an interest, if they have the money to pay for it, and if they are committed to fixing the problem they tell you they have.

When we don’t clearly define lead, any person who shows up in our space becomes a “lead.” And that’s not how you create business. That’s how you become tired…quickly. Read more