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

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Matt Hernandez about the changes in the marketplace, and how the ability to find local partners has helped him drive more revenue for the businesses he serves. In his work with small-to-medium businesses, Matt has worked to figure out new ways to deal with leads because people have become more resistant to cold calling. He believes that, although cold-calling can work, it must exist in the right circumstances. The key is better lead intelligence. Hire the right people Matt doesn't struggle with recruiting or interviewing salespeople.  The key, he says, is to be very upfront about the challenges of the role and hire the right type of people. Hire open-minded people who aren't super particular about their activities and who often aren't as needy. [7:15] They'll be more coachable. Also be very honest about the type of role you're hiring for, the challenges it will present, but also the benefits of the role as well. Moving away from cold leads In the past, se

n today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, I talk to Todd Earwood about the adage that we need not reinvent the wheel, but Todd is doing just that. Todd famously cold-called the CEO of a billion dollar company for 43 straight days until he finally got the interview, and then the job. He began his career in software. It wasn’t until he was making the rounds to thank investors for the success of his latest software endeavor that he realized that marketing was his real niche.   As Todd explains it, one of the investors simply asked Todd what his future plans were, which seemed like such a silly question at the question. Software was all he had ever done. But the investor went on to say that marketing and sales were really the special skills he saw in Todd. Todd reluctantly agreed and MoneyPath began.  [00:54] Clear the path to purchases through quality marketing AtMoneyPath, Todd and his group of marketers ‘clear the path to purchases.’ It is their tagline because they are dedicated to helping sales. In the mark

Today on The Sales Evangelist we’ll talk about planning and setting effective goals. It’s that time of year again where we find ourselves contemplating our achievements over the past 12 months. Some of us reached our sales goals and some of us did not, but we can all benefit from reflecting on what worked well, and what did not work at all. HAVE A PLAN There’s a difference between setting goals by ‘throwing a dart at the goal wall’ versus setting goals based on the experiences that we are guided towards by the people we meet. It is the difference between having hope and having a plan. [03:27] A ‘throw a dart’ goal is as simple as choosing a random number – say $80,000 for example – and then setting that as your commission goal. But why that number? Are you simply hoping to make $80K, or do you have an actual plan in place to achieve it? I hope I lose 10lbs next year, I hope I win the lottery, I hope we get out of work early… Those are all just hopes because there is no plan in place to accomplish any of it. Y

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’re going to hear from David DeRam, CEO and co-founder of Greenlight Guru, about the “it” factor, and how it can change the culture in any organization. CULTURE At Greenlight Guru, David and his team spend a lot of time focusing on culture. He calls the company culture unique, but he says that culture doesn’t fall down on you like rain. You don’t experience culture; you participate in it. Leaders can think about culture and work to create culture, but leaders can’t execute culture. It’s like a plant that will grow the way that it grows, and if everyone isn’t on board with the culture, the culture won’t grow the way leaders want it to. [4:51] As a result, David’s team looks to everyone on the team to get involved and participate in the culture.   Culture drives results. It impacts every single nook and cranny of your business. #WorkCulture CLICK TO TWEET   People will work how they feel, and if they feel great, they’ll bring an entirely different energy to their

I received an email the other day from a sales rep that I found so annoying that I am dedicating this entire episode to the ways you can avoid making the same mistakes with your emails. This episode will give you ideas to make sure your emails grab your prospect’s attention so that he will reply instead of deleting your email. ANNOYING EMAILS The annoying email I received began, “Hello there.” Who is ‘there’? Do they not even know my name? I’ve done 1000+ episodes.  I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and my name is easy to find. The lack of effort on the part of the sender was evident from the very start. It is almost an insult. And it didn’t improve from there as the body of the email in no way addressed my type of business or my needs. It was simply an email blast. It was, quite frankly, a waste of everyone’s time. The days of sending out crappy emails are long gone. You want your emails to encourage a reply, to start the kind of engaging conversation that will lead to a sale now, or in the future. It needs to open

Sales constantly evolves. As technology and tools change, we have new processes and strategies available to us. On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we hear from Alex Glenn about the new world for CRM and mirroring pipeline and how it can help us be more effective in our sales processes. Alex runs automateddata.af, a place where customers can grab working automations for their businesses. The platform crowdsources solutions and wraps them up into a usable format for those in sales, marketing, and customer success. DEVELOPING CRM CRM has seen a bit of a shift over the last few years. Instead of being software that costs thousands of dollars and requires a great deal of training, your CRM must be more agile now. [3:51] CRM must work with your existing tools as well as the dashboards you regularly use for work. It must be easily accessible and easily connectable. Most founders are also coming around to the idea that CRM should serve as all-in-one solutions. It’s very convenient for people to access the in

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we’ll talk to serial entrepreneur Justin Hartzman about how we can grow a business and why we should do it with the possibility of an acquisition in mind. Justin is the CEO and co-founder of Needls.com, the Internet’s first RoboAgency. It is the easiest and most effective way for small businesses to advertise online and bring in more sales. By answering just six questions, Needls.com knows who you are, who you want to sell to, and what you want to sell. It can create 50-500 ads in real time, deliver them to the network, and show them to your ideal customer.  THE BOTTOM LINE OF ANY BUSINESS Some of us seek the independence that comes from being our own boss while others desire flexibility and creative freedom or want to achieve a sense of personal fulfillment. [1:59] The bottom line of starting any business though, as Justin explains, is to earn the financial freedom to live our lives the way we want. A successful business puts more money in our pockets and allows us

Many of the activities in our day don’t actually help us close more deals. We’re busy doing things, but they aren’t moving our deals forward. Today we’ll talk about the things that distract us as sales reps, and how we can stop unnecessary distractions that are actually hindering our efforts. DISTRACTIONS Email is a necessary part of our sales efforts but spending time cleaning up our email isn’t an effective use of our time. If this were a football game, you wouldn’t be in the locker room trying to learn plays. Once the game starts, you’ll spend your time trying to advance the ball and score. So why do we spend our time at work doing things that aren’t conducive to closing deals? [4:30] Very often, we are hesitant to do the things that we really need to do. We don’t want to make cold calls or try to upsell our existing customers.   Sellers often want to do things that are easy, so we do things that make us feel accomplished like cleaning our email instead of tackling hard tasks like cold calling and prospec

The last thing you want is to have your sales process abandon by your sellers. We will share with you how to prevent this. Listen to how.

On today's episode of The Sales Evangelist, we're talking with Curt Rapp about how sellers can benefit from the experiences and knowledge of others, and how that knowledge creates shortcuts. Curt works as an independent contractor selling luxury outdoor products to consumers. During the holidays, that means Christmas lights and decorations. During the warmer months, he sells outdoor cooling systems and mosquito control. He has access to marketing collateral like CRM and other resources, but he has to bring purpose and a sense of direction to the process. He has to take ownership in the sales process and get focused. TSE Hustler's League Curt took part in our online coaching program, previously called TSE Hustler's League. He said the most valuable part of the experience was learning from other people's mistakes. Curt calls them shortcuts because he's borrowing knowledge from other people. [03:15] Learning how other people handle the daily dogfight of sales helps him borrow their knowledge the next time he fin

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, I am introducing our new program – the TSE Certified Sales Program. If you are a sales leader in a company – this program is for you. If you are an executive or business owner of a small firm and your sales reps don’t have a process – […] The post TSE 975: TSE Certified Sales Program – What Is It? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Chirag Gupta, founder of NoD Coworking, about documenting processes and how it will help your organization become more efficient and more profitable. Chirag has been an entrepreneur since college, and his coworking space in Dallas has achieved profitability, a goal many startups never achieve, largely as […] The post TSE 974: Sales From The Street: “Document Everything” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to content marketing leader Pam Didner about the critical role content plays in sales and the importance of collaborative sales and marketing. Content plays a critical role in educating customers and prospects, making sales enablement a natural extension of content marketing. Pam is the author of Effective […] The post TSE 973: Achieve Sales Growth Through Collaborative Sales And Marketing appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss the value of following every step in the sales process, and how you can prevent your sales team from skipping steps in the process. Sales processes aren’t intended to add burdens to your role as a sales leader, but should actually free you and your team […] The post TSE 972: How To Get Salespeople Not To Skip Steps In The Sales Process appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk with global sales team leader Michael Wills about how to develop a sales process that works. Many sellers have no real sense of direction, but they expect to be successful despite the lack of a plan. Defining a sales process A sales process provides a way […] The post TSE 971: How To Develop A Sales Process That Works appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist Hustler’s League, we’re talking about how you can exert influence into the buying process even when you are too late. TSE Hustler’s League is our online group coaching program that brings together sellers from all industries and all abilities to share ideas. Executives I’m reading a book called […] The post TSE 970: TSE Hustler’s League – “You Are Too Late” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

  On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to John Crowley, author of Knuckle Dragging Sales, about the difficulty of sales and a return to simple ideas about selling. John helps sales professionals build a personal brand so they can increase their visibility and their earnings. Knuckle dragging John said he has gotten a […] The post TSE 969: Sales From The Street: “Knuckle Dragging Sales” appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we talk to Kory Angeline about the right questions, and how you can help your customers feel comfortable without feeling pushed. No matter what industry you’re in, you’re probably going to find yourself selling. And truthfully, a lot of us aren’t good at it. Kory offers the idea […] The post TSE 968: How To Ask A Potential Customer The Right Questions That Make Them Feel Comfortable And Not Pushed appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

One of our listeners reached out to me the other day about Mark Zuckerberg’s recent quote: “Move fast and break things.” On today’s episode of The Sales Evangelist, we discuss the idea that if you’re not moving fast enough to break things, then you aren’t moving fast enough, and how that statement relates to sales. […] The post TSE 967: How Does The Statement “Unless You Are Breaking Stuff, You Are Not Moving Fast Enough” Apply To Sales? appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.

In this episode of The Sales Evangelist, I had the pleasure of speaking once again with Jeffrey Gitomer, The King of Sales, about the Law of Harmonious Attraction. Jeffrey is an author, speaker, and business trainer who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development.  He also hosts the very popular Sell or […] The post TSE 966: The Law of Harmonious Attraction appeared first on The Sales Evangelist.