#10 -I’m in Sales? How I Learned to Love that Sales Thing
Who am I? Where am I? How did I get here? If you’re in sales, you’ve probably asked yourself those questions at one time or another. Most kids when asked what they want to be when they grow up don’t respond with, “I want to be in sales!” And yet, it is one of the most challenging and rewarding professions where you can take control of your destiny – and have fun along the way.
The next Asher Sales Sense Podcast – “I’m in Sales? How I Learned to Love that Sales Thing” – features host Kyla O’Connell with guest David Potts, Senior Sales Trainer and Consultant for all things Asher. David normally handles Asher Sales Sense introductions and productions, but this time gets an opportunity to tell a little about himself and his journey from sales denier to sales enthusiast.
On this podcast, Kyla and Dave discuss
- First sales jobs where you don’t realize you’re in sales
- The moment when you finally do realize you’re in sales
- How sales knowledge and aptitude are vital in any job
Listen in to learn the secrets of how Dave had success in the Air Force without being a pilot, success at Lockheed Martin without being an engineer, and success at Asher Strategies without being particularly gifted at sales training or consulting.
#9 – Bringing Your Sales Team Back to the Office
It’s the end of summer. The vacations are ending and kids are returning to school. Your company’s senior leadership just announced you should begin bringing your sales team back to the office (because they need to get back to work). You have to get going now, but you don’t know how to start. Wouldn’t it be great to hear some useful tips from an expert sales leader who’s doing that with his company right now?
This Asher Sales Sense Podcast – “Bringing Your Sales Team Back to the Office” – features host John Asher with guest Darrell Gehrt, Senior Vice President, Event Cloud Solutions at Cvent, transforming meetings and events through technology. Darrell joined Cvent pre-IPO in January 2013 and has led several product lines including Web Survey, Mobile, and in 2020 took on the pivot to virtual event technology.
- How important is it to have salespeople in the office rather than continuing to work at home?
- What does company office culture have to do with a successful office return?
- What are salespeople telling sales leaders about their desire to come back to the office?
- What are sales leaders doing to keep sales teams safe when returning to the office?
- What possible internal obstacles are there to bringing sales back into the office?
- Will full-time sales operations in the office ever become the norm again?
Listen to the answers to these questions and get ready to return your sales team to the office whenever and however you can.
#8 – Building Sales Pipeline with Cold Calling, Podcasts, and Video
This Asher Sales Sense Podcast – “Building Sales Pipeline with Cold Calling, Podcasts, and Video” – features host John Asher with guest Collin Mitchell, Chief Revenue Officer of Salescast, the only fully-managed tech and service stack offering an end-to-end thought leadership platform. Collin Mitchell is also the host of the Sales Transformation Podcast.
Many sales professionals believe that cold calling is dead, that podcasts don’t bring revenue, and video is a waste of money. Collin Mitchell gives examples of why these commonly-held beliefs are false. It’s all in how these messaging technologies are applied, not in the capabilities themselves.
- How can you identify which people will pick up the phone?
- Are there automated ways to help you get more phone connections?
- Which people listen to podcasts and watch videos?
- Do “blended” approaches work? With whom?
- What is “intent data” and what value does it have?
- Is it possible to research podcasts to get inside the C-Suite?
- Do you know what podcasts your clients listen to?
- How effective is the use of video in the first sales touch?
- Can you use video to help your coaches sell for you inside their companies?
Listen to the answers of these questions and learn new ways to build more pipeline by turning your sales craft into sales art.
#7 – 5 Ways the Buyer’s Behavior has Permanently Changed
Did you know that 10% of buyers will spend up to a million dollars a year per transaction without ever speaking to a sales rep? 30% will buy up to have a million per transaction without ever speaking to a rep. Digital transformation is here to stay. For many companies, it’s a game of catch-up. In order to know what you need to change, you first have to understand what has permanently changed in the buyers’ behavior. Listen to John Asher run through those five ways and the WHYs to give you the understanding and fuel you need to implement these changes to outshine your competition. This is just one point covered. You’ll want to take notes in this episode of Asher Sales Sense.
Catch the previous episode in this series: The Five New Skills Sales Professionals Need
#6 -The Five New Skills Sales Professionals Need
John talks about the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 rule. People are interacting with buyers 1/3 of the time in person, 1/3 of the time on a remote platform like Zoom or the final 1/3 of buyers are just buying themselves on companies’ websites, eCommerce sites, interactive portals, sometimes even mobile apps. All that face-to-face we were doing before is not going to be available in the future. And we ask the buyers, “Do you like this new omnichannel way of buying?” They’ll say, “Yeah, we, we love it. In many cases, it’s, we’re much more productive.”
In this discussion, John talks about the 5 new skills all sales professionals must possess. You’ll want to listen to this more than once.
- Thorough research on the buyer’s need.
- This consistent video marketing,
- Increasing the operational proficiency on the VC platforms and, um, keeping
- Keeping your LinkedIn profile totally up to date eight.
- Putting the buyer first.
#5 – Being Honest Isn’t the Same as Being Mean or Brutal, But It’s Necessary
Join these two authors, John Asher and Vincent Burruano, talking about what took them so long to write their books. That leads to the motivation behind Vincent’s latest book, “A Daily Dose of Sales Wisdom“. This takes us to an important distinction regarding being nice can be unkind. What Vince means is that honesty is necessary to build trust, and sometimes that means telling a hard truth or two to your sales team. They both make the distinction between being honest and being mean or brutal. These are great communication skills and will help you help your team improve without being on the defensive. Tune in for this episode of Asher Sales Sense, “Being Honest Isn’t the Same as Being Mean or Brutal, But It’s Necessary.”
About John’s guest:
Vince Burruano is a leader of high-performance sales teams, a sales training professional, a published author on sales strategies, and a sales coach. He believes learning and growth are the keys to success at both the individual and team levels. Vince practices a customer-centric approach that encourages mutually beneficial relationships.
As a VP of Sales, Vince understands not just the challenges of selling, but ineffectively setting goals and managing sales teams to achieve them. He is also the author of “A Daily Dose of Sales Wisdom: Practical Advice for Sales Professionals and Leaders to Excel” and “The New Sales Professional’s Playbook” and a member of the Forbes Business Development Council.
Receiving his MBA in Business Administration, Management, and Operations from The George Washington University and his Bachelor of Philosophy from the School of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America, Vince is also certified in the Top-Ten Sales Skills of Elite Salespeople (ASHER Global Leaders in Growth Strategies) and SPIN Selling and Managing the Complex Sale (Huthwaite International).
#4 – How do you hook prospects to stay, listen, then tell their story?
In this episode, John Asher is joined by the author of “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell”, Mike Adams. One of the best ways to get someone, specifically a business prospect, to pay attention to you is by being a great storyteller. And who better to explain this than a best-selling author? Mike and John are here to explain the difference a great story can make, and the effects storytelling has on the brain… and your sales. You’ll want to bookmark this episode, hosted by John Asher, with special guest Mike Adams, “How do you hook prospects to stay, listen, then tell their story?”.
About John’s guest, Mike Adams:
Engineer turned salesman, Mike Adams taught himself storytelling ‘on the job’ while selling and managing sales teams in the United Kingdom, Russia, India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia for international corporations Schlumberger, Siemens, Nokia, and Halliburton. Since 2014, Mike has been helping companies find and develop their own stories through his storytelling consulting practice.
Pick up a copy of Mike’s Book, “Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell” from Amazon.
#3 – What Buyers are Telling Us About Digital Transformation
In this final piece of John Asher’s series on Digital Transformation. Do you think your company has already been digitally transformed? How about your sales team? This isn’t just for larger companies. Smaller companies are in trouble because with AI, it’s easier and almost effortless for larger companies to dominate the areas that were formerly reserved for smaller companies. Successful companies that have truly transformed their businesses are using AI to really transform their strategic planning and marketing plans. In this episode, John cites tools and companies to help any size company successfully accomplish this.
Listen to the first two pieces to have all the tools you need. You’ll want the tools and the understanding as to why the buyer’s behavior has permanently changed.
The Five New Skills Sales Professionals Need
5 Ways the Buyer’s Behavior has Permanently Changed
#2 – Six Most Important Cognitive Biases for Salespeople to Master
There’s been this international consortium of neuroscientists in 70 countries, sharing their research, sharing their studies in the cloud. So all of them get to see what everybody else is doing. The growth of this knowledge is really just exponential. If you go to Wikipedia and type in cognitive bias, see there are 184 of them. Asher Strategies has analyzed all 184 of them and boiled them down to 15 or 20 of them that apply really directly to sales that can have a big impact. In most cases, they apply to marketing as well. We are covering the first six in this episode of Asher Sales Sense.
- compliment bias
- reciprocity bias (The Chinese call this Ren-Chang-Ching)
- similarity bias
- anchor bias
- single option aversion bias
- choice paradox bias
#1 – Top Cognitive Biases for Salespeople to Master: Seven Through Twelve
In our previous episode, John Asher covered the 6 Most Important Cognitive Biases a Salesperson Must Overcome.
In this episode, John talks about the next six cognitive biases out of the 47 that pertain directly to sales and marketing:
- Status Quo Bias
- Rationale and Consistency Biases that go together
- Clear Distinction Bias
- Active Emotional Engagement Bias
- Commitment Bias
John also went over the best architecture of a customer story.
- Start with the buyer’s need and any emotions expressed by them
- Relate the story directly to the buyer
- Include the details of how you helped them so they can see you were really involved
- Include the financial benefit the buyer got
- Tell the story about how the buyer’s emotion was at the end.
Listen to the first part of this series here:
https://asherstrategiesradio.com/e/six-most-important-cognitive-biases-for-salespeople-to-master/
