Ask the Right Questions, The Sales and RevOps Podcast

Dive into the secrets of sales success by mastering the customer journey in this must-listen podcast episode explicitly crafted for sales leaders! Uncover why grasping your customers' journey is vital to nurturing enduring relationships and propelling your sales performance to new heights. In this enlightening episode, we delve into the following: The significance of dedicating time to understanding the customer journey and how this collaboration paves the way for a smooth, engaging experience. Embracing a small-shop mentality to intimately comprehend the customer journey, enabling you to fine-tune your approach and meet their requirements. The power of concentrating on the customer journey to ensure you're addressing their pain points and aspirations, resulting in heightened customer satisfaction and loyalty. Don't miss these transformative tactics for advancing your sales career and fostering unbreakable customer bonds. Listen now and revolutionize your perspective on the customer journey!

This episode describes getting your sales team to run great discovery calls. Should you tie your questions into the CRM? Should you have a set of questions that all reps should use (and stick to)? Why do we say reps need specific training to ask these questions? And why do we need discovery calls at all? If you watch the show now, you'll discover that reps mess up their discovery calls because they don't care about or don't know the business they're talking to. They're also excited about selling - they know the answer, so they're simply looking for a moment in the conversation to demonstrate that. To help their reps, sales leaders need to: Train reps on asking the questions to understand the challenge so the prospect can see you're the solution. Conduct role plays and training on asking these questions. Make the most of the training on discovery. Review their sales process and realize that discovery may be more of a phase than a step in the CRM. Watch now.

Welcome to Ask The Right Questions!  In today's episode, we discuss how you can take your sales performance from good to great by incorporating role-play and simulations into your training. Whether you're a sales leader or a salesperson looking to improve your skills, this episode is for you. We'll dive into the benefits of using role-play and simulations, share success stories from sales teams who have implemented these strategies, and provide practical tips for incorporating them into your sales training.  Don't miss this opportunity to elevate your sales game - tune in now!

In this episode, we delve into the crucial role that employer branding plays in attracting and retaining top sales talent. With so many companies vying for the best salespeople, standing out and making a lasting impression is imperative. In this episode, we break down the four pillars of a strong employer brand to help you hire better salespeople. These pillars include: understanding your company's identity, understanding your ideal candidate, streamlining your interview process, and crushing onboarding. By following these tips, you'll be able to attract the best salespeople to your team and build a solid and successful sales team. Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn how to hire better salespeople with a strong employer brand. Listen to the episode now!

Are you tired of seeing your sales reps struggle to close deals, despite following a rigid sales process? The truth is one size doesn't fit all in sales. That's why personalizing your sales process is crucial for success. In this episode, we reveal the top takeaways to help you implement a more effective and efficient sales process that will deliver results. Join us as we discuss the importance of ensuring that your sales process helps reps close deals rather than hindering them.  We dive into how to capture the insights of your top-performing sales reps to uncover the personalization strategies they use intuitively. You'll learn the importance of documenting your sales process, clarifying what a good representative means for your team, and implementing the changes using HubSpot. We also cover the role of enablement tools in supporting rep learning and driving change management.  With our top takeaways, you'll be able to personalize your sales process to meet the unique needs of your buyers and close more deals.  Tune in to learn and improve your sales performance today.

In this episode of Ask The Right Questions, we delve into the critical issue of maintaining mental health and well-being in the sales industry.  As a sales leader, it's essential to understand the role you play in your team's performance and well-being. In this show, we'll discuss the expectations you should have for your team and provide practical tips to promote mental health in the workplace.  You'll learn about the eight elements contributing to a supportive work environment and how to use your CRM to identify early signs of burnout in your team.  Join us as we explore the vital role sales leaders play in promoting the health and well-being of their teams.  Listen now to unlock the secrets to maximizing your team's success and avoiding burnout.

Welcome to "Empathic Selling," where we explore the power of emotions in the sales process and how understanding your customers' emotions can lead to more successful sales outcomes. In this episode, we'll discuss the importance of being aware of the role emotions play in the sales process and how sales leaders can expect their salespeople to be mindful of feelings and their significance throughout the sales process. We'll also discuss the importance of looking out for how people feel through body language and words and being aware of your reps' emotions. We'll explore how a prospect's emotions can switch between the beginning and end of the sales process and how to be aware of this and include it in role plays, coaching, and training. We'll also cover practical steps that sales leaders can take to operationalize the use of emotions, including playbooks and training, and CI. By the end of the episode, you'll better understand the role of emotions in sales and how to use empathy to drive successful outcomes. Our top takeaways from this episode include the following: Being aware of feelings and their importance throughout the sales process. Looking out for how people feel (body language, words, etc.). Beware of your reps' emotions. Be aware that prospect emotions switch between the beginning and end of the process. Include the role of emotions in coaching and training. Incorporate playbooks and training to operationalize the use of emotions. Thank you for joining us on "Empathic Selling." We hope you found this episode informative and actionable.  Be sure to subscribe to our podcast for more valuable insights on leveraging emotions in sales.

Is product knowledge essential in sales? My answer - it depends. Do you have a complex, expensive, or technical product? Then yes, it's vital for your salesperson to deeply understand your solution and be able to speak confidently about it. But in smaller, simpler sales environments - you don't need that same level of knowledge. The wins come from identifying a prospect's pain and determining if your solution can solve it. In this show, we explain why: Salespeople need to understand what the product does. Still, it can't be a veil to push a product. Sales leaders must focus on finding people who are good at communicating with clients. Sales leaders should use their Conversation Intelligence tool in HubSpot to identify product and communications coaching moments.

Alyssa Milot, a Fractional CMO at The Zen Strategy, talks about why sales leaders need to care about their company's 2023 marketing plan and how sales leaders benefit from knowing their company's 2023 marketing plan. Your company's 2023 marketing plan is more than just a document. It's a roadmap for the future of your business, and it needs input from all stakeholders. In this episode, we're talking to Alyssa Milot about why sales leaders need to care about their company's 2023 marketing plan. Sales leaders have a lot on their plates. They're responsible for setting revenue targets, meeting clients, and developing new sales strategies. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! As a sales leader, you've got to keep your finger on the pulse of your company's business strategy—especially when it comes to marketing.  But what exactly does that mean? What is a marketing plan? How do you use it? And why should sales leaders care about it?

The best sales leaders help their reps actively listen during a sales conversation. Salespeople are in a unique situation. They have the burden of making their quota and doing whatever it takes. Still, they also have the power to develop relationships with their customers to help them grow their business over time. Sales reps should focus on listening and understanding the customer's problem. To do that, they need to ask questions and listen deeply to uncover the pain points or challenges that keep the customer up at night—the business problems they need to solve. A great question could also help sales reps gain empathy, understand the pain points better, and explore other potential solutions with the customer. Asking questions is how a salesperson can exercise active listening in a sales conversation, helping them adapt and adjust their approach when the needs of the customer change throughout the discussion. This episode discusses why sales leaders play a significant role in helping their salespeople actively listen and what leaders can do to help a salesperson get better. If they're not listening, it's hard to pick up on what the other person is saying. In this episode, you'll hear: What a salesperson should do, What top sales leaders do to help their teams, and How to operationalize coaching to scale your efforts and improve results over time. We leave you with the top takeaways.

Everyone knows assessments aren't always the most popular thing. When we don't necessarily have a framework for looking at them as anything other than black and white, it's hard to approach them in any other way. But when done right and leveraged correctly- assessments can help build better teams, build a better business and lead to better results. Assessments can be beneficial if you're interested in improving your team's sales force or effectiveness. But they don't have to be used so lamely: you can use this information to help your team members improve their skills, mainly when you use the data in your HubSpot CRM. Sales assessments can be helpful if you're responsible for hiring, training and developing people. But they can also become unhelpful when misused. We're taking a brief look at the power of assessments and how to use those tools to your advantage. This episode offers tips to help you get more out of a sales assessment. How to make sales and leadership assessments work for you: It's not about right or wrong; use evaluations to establish the strengths and risks of a rep. Know when the examination is being used and the purpose of the evaluation. Talk through the answers with your reps. Operationalize it - don't just leave the results in a file. Add the results to your HubSpot CRM and use it as a 1-on-1 coaching and aggregate data. Work with your sales team to get buy-in. Contact Paul to use his sales assessment to make the best decisions for your team! https://questionz.ca/

Is it time to make sales boring? I found this interesting read in the Atlantic that argues that baseball has gotten boring because of the Moneyballisation of it. Should we, as sales leaders, aim to make sales boring by focusing on data and scalability? In parallel, Jon Selig shares a story of reps in a non-SaaS environment where sales are still very much relationship driven.   So my question is, should we make sales boring or keep the art of it?

This is an episode about how sales leaders should plan for 2023 and how sales leaders can ensure success is achieved. What does sales success look like in 2023? Is top-down goal setting work best? What about bottom-up? What's the role of motivation? What do sales, your team and the company look like? How will you plan, execute, track and report on that strategy? Paul and I discuss the following: How sales leaders need to plan 2023 How to help your sales reps plan for 2023 How to help yourself prepare for 2023 How to use HubSpot to keep yourself and reps accountable to help achieve 2023 success Enjoy the show! #sales #salesleaders #2023 #planning #plan #planningprocess #goalsetting #motivation #motivate #motivating #motivational #crm #success #innovation #change #transformation #leadership #leaders #futuresales #hubspot #salesdashboard

The right partners and brief will save you time, effort and money. You hire an agency to help you, your company or your client with a project. The agency asks your company how to proceed, and the company tells them what to do. Or are they supposed to add their flair? How do you brief an agency? How do you let someone else do their job but still let them know what's going on? What does it mean when an agency calls a meeting with you and your client every day for two weeks: what does that imply? BONUS: Do the lessons here apply to hiring people as employees? 👉 Download Alyssa's creative brief template here 👈

This episode explores the most significant reasons companies have difficulty following a defined sales process and what sales processes offer to organizations and their salespeople. Sales processes allow you to sell more value to your prospective buyer. The sales team is selling more and selling more value. It seems like it's something most companies would want. So why do so many get it wrong? In this show, we answer the following questions. What is the most challenging part of the sales process? Why do most salespeople fail? Why is it important to follow a sales process? Which aspect of the sales process is usually the weakest in most organizations? How HubSpot can help you follow your sales process. Enjoy the show!

Marketing. It's still one of those things that people either love or hate. Business leaders can't seem to allocate enough time and resources for marketing. They can't build a scalable marketing practice that can provide sustainable, long-term growth. Small business owners don't want to wait six months to see results but also want to ensure they're investing in the proper marketing practices. Too often, companies have a sales-driven approach to marketing. They are more focused on growing revenue today than on building a repeatable process that will allow them to scale their marketing over time. Marketing teams must balance the urgent need for results with a long-term, sustainable plan to help get them there. In this episode, Alyssa, Fab and Paul share advice on linking their lead funnels to larger marketing plans so you can balance immediate business needs with long-term growth. Enjoy the show!

We often hear this question. It seems like a simple enough question. If you asked 100 small business owners, you'd get many different answers and opinions.  Sales reps will always tell you that they're doing great.  - "I'm doing all the right things!" - "We're out in the field!" - "We called all our old customers!" For every sale, they say, "I was right there with them." So how do we hold sales reps accountable? Salespeople are self-selling and will sell themselves short before they showcase their lack of skills or knowledge. When it comes to keeping sales reps accountable, it does not necessarily have a one-size-fits-all or silver bullet system but rather a process where you can blend your current workflows and tools for keeping sales representatives accountable into one central place that everyone on the team uses - so that everyone is on the same page - from operations to managers to heads of reps. This video explores the why, how, who and when of keeping sales reps accountable:  What does it mean to keep your representatives accountable? Why do you need to keep reps accountable? Who's "job" is it to keep reps accountable? Where do you find the data you need to keep them accountable? How do you keep it updated? When should you be keeping them accountable? Weekly meetings? Daily meetings?

Stop wasting your leads' time. Stop pitching. When you meet someone for the first time, how do you get them to pay attention? Inbound leads are probably further along in the buying process than outbound leads, but does that matter? Tactically, yes. The truth is, though, no one wants to get pitched. Instead, try to get things rolling by starting a conversation. In this episode, Paul and Fab answer these core questions: What's the goal of the elevator pitch? What's the difference between an Inbound lead and an Outbound lead? When should you deliver an elevator pitch? How should you deliver an elevator pitch (via phone, Zoom, email, LinkedIn, etc.)? How can your HubSpot CRM help your reps have the right elevator pitch?

Salespeople are heroes in their way. They're the ones who are out there on the ground, making the phone calls, looking for new customers and ultimately using their time, energy and expertise to make sure that we're growing your business. They're amazing. But, economic uncertainty is plaguing many businesses and sales organizations today. With customers looking to their bottom lines and companies working harder than ever to cut costs, not grow, the prospect of getting new business in the door seems even more challenging.  In this episode, we discuss working with sales teams during difficult times.

Building a solid brand positioning is hard, and it's essential. But it doesn't have to be intimidating. A strong brand positioning means you can quickly and efficiently communicate what your business is about. It means that your company stands for something.  In this episode, Alyssa Milot joins us again to go through exercises you can use to build a strong brand positioning for your organization, product or service. Enjoy the show!

Sales is hard. Prospecting is harder. And prospecting is where all salespeople struggle the most. How can we prospect more consistently? How can we transcend the fear and discomfort and put ourselves out there, reaching out to our prospects and asking for their business? In this episode, Paul and Fab unpack the fear of prospecting to help you break through your reluctance and create a compelling process to reach out confidently to your ideal customers daily.

The biggest question in sales is whether to pay somebody a commission for their behaviour or results. We've seen both. Results-based pay is more straightforward, but performance-based can be more motivating. But here's the thing: Companies should evaluate performance with established metrics before the reps hit their goals, regardless of which method they choose. Pre-established metrics communicate to them - and their bosses - that it doesn't matter what type of behaviours they adopt, only that these behaviours yield the desired outcomes. They're motivated to do whatever it takes to hit their targets, not to perform in a way that demonstrates proficiency. Instead of focusing on actual performance, can a results-focused sales compensation plan emphasizes less important behaviours?

Have you ever considered using LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter in your business? In this episode, we sit with Alyssa Milot to share her tips and advice on how to get started and succeed.  Find out how she helps small businesses with social media makeovers. Enjoy the show!

Salespeople hate updating the CRM. So we automate, compromise and simplify. And what's wrong with that? At the core - nothing. But refusing to update your CRM is an indication that there's an underlying problem. You stay on top of your deals, contacts and companies by keeping your HubSpot or Salesforce up-to-date. Not doing so can be an indication that there's a lack of accountability in the sales and service teams. So, by all means, automate. But make sure your team is held accountable.   In this episode, we discuss the implications of sales admin tasks.

How do you know if you're marketing is working? Evaluating the success of marketing efforts is tricky. Software like social media and email tools give you tons of data. But is it the correct information? In this episode, we sit with Alyssa Millot to talk about how to evaluate your marketing efforts.

In sales, you need to forecast what revenue will come this week, month, quarter and year. An accurate forecast allows you to determine future investments and hirings. They're crucial, but not all sales leaders know how to forecast with their teams.   In this episode, we discuss forecasts and how to run forecast calls with your reps.  Enjoy the show!

Sales coaching is one of the best ways to ensure your reps level up. Spending time with each one and helping them learn from their mistakes is a crucial responsibility of a sales leader. In this episode, Paul and Fab share how to best coach sales reps and how your CRM is an essential coaching tool. (NOTE: Paul experienced technical issues during the recording and dropped off before the end)

Interviewing salespeople isn't easy. After all, sales aren't your typical job and require particular skills and aptitude. And there's a lot of advice out there. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about recruitment in sales and share some best practices. Enjoy the show!

Upsells, cross-sells, and renewals are the lifeblood of a company. Especially those with recurring revenue and usage-based pricing. But while we talk a lot about sales and marketing roles and responsibilities, we don't spend as much time looking at sales and service/account management functions.   In this episode, Paul and Fab explain who should handle expansions in your organization. Enjoy the show!

How do I generate leads? How do I qualify them? It's a big topic, and so many companies struggle with it.  But it doesn't have to start that way.   In this episode, Fab and Paul sit with Alyssa Milot from Zen Strategies to discuss: Free lead generation strategies Sales and marketing alignment  The roles of sales and marketing teams in lead generation  The importance of SDRs ...and much, much more. Enjoy the show!

Your salespeople aren't calling? They're constantly updating, tweaking, but never actually selling? Are they lazy? Can you motivate lazy salespeople? We uncover the truth behind sales "laziness" in this episode. Enjoy the show!

WARNING: We veer off track and riff on various marketing and RevOps topics during the show, so enjoy! Marketing and RevOps need to work better together to help to company achieve its revenue goals. In this episode, we sit down with Alyssa of ZenStrategy to review marketing's biggest pitfalls and how both teams can work together.  

A Sales Manager job is interesting. Different roles, different job descriptions, and little-to-no job or manager training, it's more often than not, the path to growth for a lot of salespeople. In this episode, we discuss - What's the role of a sales manager? What skills does a sales manager need? Why do sales managers matter so much? Who does a sales manager work with most often? Where do they spend their time? When should a sales manager coach their team? How does a sales manager use their company's CRM? Enjoy the show!

The number of sales tools available to teams keeps growing. But do they matter?  Are they moving the needle? Or is good old-fashioned elbow grease all you need? Naturally, tools matter, but there's a caveat... Enjoy the show!

Should sales reps be comedians? Well, not necessarily, but if your sales (and marketing) teams are having a hard time connecting with their audiences, you'll want to listen to this episode. Revenue teams should understand a comedian's process of writing jokes to figure out how to stand out in their markets. In a crowded world where every rep is sending the same email templates, gaining a deep understanding of your audience (and writing up a few jokes along the way) goes a long way. In this episode, we sit down with Jon Selig - a comedian and founder of Comedy Writing for Revenue Teams, to discuss: How he got into comedy? Why he started working with sales and revenue teams, and what is "Comedy Writing for Revenue Teams"??? Why do salespeople and marketers have a hard time connecting with their prospects? (inbound, outbound, traditional) How can we elicit more emotions? How can you make sure your teams use comedy daily? What does success mean to him?

Marketing is one of the three critical pillars of your revenue generation. Yet organizations still ignore it, misunderstand it and underinvest in it 🤷 That's why we sat down with Alyssa Milot, a fractional CMO who's worked with countless startups to help build out their marketing efforts. In this episode, we talk about: How Alyssa got into marketing and became a fractional CMO. What marketing challenges do companies have these days. How she suggests companies market, sell and service (inbound, outbound, traditional). How does she make sure she achieves her goals and objectives? What does success mean to her? Enjoy the show!

Your sales methodology dictates how you sell to your prospects. While Consultative Selling is one of the most popular ones, it isn't the only one.   In this episode, we discuss these sales methodologies: Transactional selling Consultative selling Solution selling Provocative selling (by Philip Lay, Todd Hewlin and Geoffrey Moore in the HBR article In a Downturn, Provoke your Customer) SaaS selling (by Winning by Design) We'll also explain why your sales methodology matters and how to choose a sales methodology that fits your needs.   Enjoy the show!

Everyone tells you to qualify your leads: inbound, outbound... qualify, qualify, qualify. Forget qualifying prospects. It would help if you focused on disqualifying instead. Every stage of your sales process should be about disqualifying and identifying leads that aren't a good fit. Bad fit leads don't close or churn, so we want to reduce the amount of time we work on them. When reps qualify, it's easier to ignore the 🚩🚩🚩🚩 In this show, we answer these questions: Why should you disqualify, and Who should you be disqualifying? How should you disqualify? What criteria should you use to disqualify? When during your sales process should you disqualify? Where does that live in HubSpot? Enjoy the show!

Warren explains how they built their company around their customers during this fascinating conversation. Warren shares how they center everything around the customer: from the first touch with the business to the long-term relationships. And the key to a genuine customer-first company? Your employees. Enjoy the show!

You're on a call with a potential customer. They're talking about their situation, their needs, and that's good. But, as a seller, you know you need to move beyond that if you're going to sell value. You need to understand their motivation, the impact you can have on the business, how decisions are made, etc. How do you do that? In this episode, we help answer that question. Specifically, we discuss: Why do you need to dive deeper? When should you dive deeper? Who should you be speaking with? How should you dive deeper? What questions should you ask?

Revenue Operations is the process of aligning your different business functions (marketing, sales, service, HR, finance, etc.) to remove roadblocks for customers and increase revenue. Specifically, in this show, we answer the questions: What is Revenu Operations? Where does RevOps come from? Who needs to care about RevOps? Why should you care about RevOps? When should you implement a RevOps approach? How should you implement a RevOps process? Enjoy the show!

We sit with James and Wade from Sheldon James Villas in this episode. They offer luxury experiences to their clients - from villa rentals to elaborate events. It's an exciting industry that we haven't explored yet, so we asked them: How they started the business What are their key challenges? How do they do marketing and sell? How do they achieve their goals and objectives What does success mean to them I hope you enjoy the show!

What happens online stays out of your CRM. In B2B, much marketing happens outside your Google and LinkedIn Ads. Not to say ads and SEO aren't necessary.  They ignore a big part of consumers' purchasing decisions. Consumers buy on referrals. That's not new. What's new is that many of these referrals are outside the traditional realm. They're happening in private Slack, Facebook and LinkedIn groups. Awareness happens through Podcasts like this one. And the impact of these groups is almost impossible to track in your CRM. This can lead marketing teams to make wrong decisions about investing their money. In this episode, we talk about dark social and its importance.

Picture this - you're on a call, and you're wondering how you can determine if the person you're talking to is the decision-maker and, if they aren't, how do you get to speak with the DM. In this episode, we talk about: What are the buying roles salespeople encounter (decision-maker, influencer, etc...) Who's the decision-maker? The far-removed contract signer or the day-to-da middle manager? Why does the DM matter so much? Where in the sales process does the decision-maker matter When should you identify the decision-making process? How to get the DM on the call when you realize you aren't speaking with her? Enjoy the show!

The stages of your sales process are critical. They largely determine whether or not your reps will see value in using your CRM.   Bad stages that are confusing and make no sense mean reps will use your CRM inconsistently. But if your steps help your sales team close more deals, then you'll have a team actively using your CRM. In this episode, we talk about: What are deal stages? Where do deal stages live? Who uses deal stages? Why are deal stages so important? When do should you build and identify your sales process and stages? How should you label your deal stages? Enjoy the show!

In this episode, we sit down with François Bernier, co-founder of Horizon B2B, to discuss how he built his business using LinkedIn.   Specifically, we talk about: How he created his business What were the challenges How they sell and market with inbound & outbound How does he make sure he achieves his goals and objectives? What does success mean to him? His unique mission Enjoy the show!

We're at a crossroads of sorts. We now have access to more sales and marketing data than ever. Yet, many teams are not using it or don't know what to do. But companies who are platforms like HubSpot and removing silos from their marketing, sales and service data and using it to fuel their growth are winning. So as you plan for next year, here is some advice on why you should collect data and what to do with it. Enjoy the show!

Can 2022 be the year you finally get rid of sales objections Sales and objections go hand-in-hand.  You can't have one without the other. Right? In this episode, Paul and Fab re-explore sales objections. We look at what they are, where they come from, and how to avoid them. Want to help your sales team deal with objections in 2022?  Enjoy the show!

With the holiday season in full swing, sales results can suffer. Yet, in some industries, it's the busiest time of year. So how do you help and organize your sales & marketing for the holiday season? Paul and Fab share some advice. Enjoy the show!

After 100 shows, Fab and Paul their thoughts on sales and marketing. From where sales are heading to what it takes to be a content marketer, we address some of our biggest learnings of the past few years. If you've enjoyed the show, this episode will be a ton of fun for you. Enjoy!

Some reps always complain. They're always finding excuses for why things aren't closing; their pipeline isn't filling up. Marketing leads are bad. It's the holidays It's Summer vacation The product is terrible...   In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about how to manage these reps. And the answer might surprise you! Enjoy the show.

Starting a real estate firm isn't a simple task. Anything from marketing the firm, delivering leads to agents, improving sales and managing staff is a challenge. In this episode, Paul and Fab sit with Loga, founder of Elite Real Estate Group, to see how he tackles marketing and sales at his firm. Enjoy the show!

Your value proposition might be one of the most foundational elements in revenue. It's a core statement that can align all your revenue teams - marketing, sales and service. Through the lens of sales, Paul and Fab talk about what a value proposition is and how it unifies those three departments. Enjoy the show!

Salespeople need to adopt a specific state of mind. A state of mind to help them ask better questions and better understand what clients need.  And ultimately, to close more deals. In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss a salesperson's state of mind. Enjoy the show!

Discover five areas that sales teams need to work, improve and perfect to do well in sales. Five core areas impact success in sales, and Paul and Fab talk about the pillars in detail today. Enjoy the show!

They aren't fun. They're frustrating. They can through you off. But, sales objections are a part of sales. They often come at the beginning of your sales process and at the end, so Paul and Fab go deeper on sales objections to help you understand them and deal with them. Hint: It's all about asking questions. Enjoy the show!

How should you think about pricing your product or service? In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about adding value and setting your prices. Enjoy the show!

As more salespeople try out LinkedIn Automation, we decided to give our point-of-view. Is there value in it?  Should salespeople automate their outreach? Are sellers killing themselves with it? Are reps going to crush their quota? ...We talk about all that and more. One last note, this isn't about whether or not it goes against LinkedIn's TOS. It's LinkedIn's platform, and they can do what they want with it. If you use automation and you get in trouble, that's on you. Enjoy the show!

Closing deals isn't something that happens at the end of your sales process. It's not an event waiting to happen. It's all the things you do between the first outreach to the moment a client signs on. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about all the things reps need to do to close their deals

There's only one way to sell the value of your product or service. Are you guesstimating your pricing? Are you leaving money on the table? Do you know if your price is fair? Do you always have to discount to win deals? If you're answering yes, it's probably that you don't know how to sell the value of what you offer.   In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss how to sell value.   Enjoy!

Are your salespeople using your CRM, or do they scramble to update it at the end of the month? If they're scrambling, there's a good chance the system isn't set up to help them succeed.\ In this episode, Paul and Fab share advice on how your reps should use the tool at each stage of their selling process.

In this episode, Paul and Fab riff on sales processes and HubSpot. Often the sales process implemented in the CRM ends up being a list of tasks and to-dos. Your CRM is only a tool. Your sales process is the strategy you want to deploy to attract, find and engage new clients. This strategic effort is made up of three parts. If you're struggling with your sales process, you'll want to listen to this.

This episode is a webinar recording Paul did for his company Questionz. During the session, he covers the four cornerstones of asking great sales questions: the salesperson's state of mind Active listening Style & delivery Questioning strategy Asking great sales questions is arguably the most critical sales skill. It allows you to qualify prospects, determine how/if you can help them and facilitates the close. Enjoy the show! Link to the show on YouTube: https://youtu.be/O-cJtHFnlYI

Setting sales targets can be tricky. Especially when there's a disconnect between what sales can deliver and revenue needs. Which, more often than not, means sales are on the hook for unattainable quotas. And, in turn, this impacts marketing, customer service, operations and then the entire organization. In this episode, Paul and Fab share advice on how to set realistic sales targets.

Salespeople struggle with it. At some point, during your calls and meetings, you'll need to challenge the customer. Your most significant competitor is the status quo, and you'll need to remind them politely that the status quo is no longer working for them. In this episode, Paul and Fab share advice on how to challenge your prospects effectively.

If you have a company and you need to grow your business, what should you invest in? Inbound Marketing or Outbound Sales? It isn't always clear cut. In this episode we we look at key factors to consider, including: The goal of your content marketing Your audience The market you're in or want to go in We take a look at two concrete examples - two companies in the same space, but who have chosen two different approaches to dominate. Why did they go about it that way?  Listen to find out...

How do you promote your startup and get your first customers? It's not easy. There are tons of competition, no brand recognition, limited budget, more prominent players, small teams.  The list goes on. So Paul and Fab sit down with Kate Bradley Chernis, Co-Founder and CEO of Lately - a social media management platform that creates content FOR you with the power of A.I. We'll be talking about: How do startups start marketing? How to promote your startup? How do startups get customers? And so, so much more. Enjoy the show!

If you aren't using video for prospecting or through your sales process, you're missing out.   Video helps you grab a prospect's attention, move deals forward and grow/retain customers.   In this episode, Paul and Fab sit down with Jacob Fernandes from Vidyard to talk about: What are sales videos? What should a sales video include? How can salespeople use video to qualify leads? Do video sales emails work? And so much more... Enjoy the show!

Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch is banning trainee brokers from making cold calls. People have been calling declaring its death for a long time now. Is this finally the end of cold calls for all? Merrill Lynch says things like switching to cell phones and the rise of LinkedIn is decreasing the conversion rate of calls vs referrals (which will be the main lead driver). But there is more to the story...   Paul and Fab share their thoughts on the situation and share tips on making calls work for you - under the right situation.

If you're on the fence about AEs, SDRs and the value of it all, you'll want to listen: what's an SDR vs an AE? when should you go full cycle AE vs SDR+AE? what's the benefit of full-cycle AEs what's the benefit of SDR+AE? & more! Enjoy the show!

In this newest edition of the rapid-fire Q&A, Paul and Fab discuss: Should you have a clear promotion path for reps? Should I evaluate reps before I hire them? Which sales methodology should I follow? Should you have an "on hold" stage of your deal pipeline, or should you lose the deal? And many, many other things. Enjoy the show!

In this episode, Paul grills Fab on marketing efforts and priorities startups and SMBs should focus on. Discover: where to start with marketing when you're an SMB how to define and follow "branding" KPIs companies doing great B2B marketing that you can learn from marketing content executives should follow lead generation or branding? how to have success in marketing Enjoy the show!

Spiffs... They're introduced to entice motivation, but do they really work? They're all critical components of a salesperson's compensation, so Paul and Fab dive deeper on the topic to see if and when it's worth using spiffs to motivate sellers.   Enjoy the show!

Your sales pipeline reviews are a missed opportunity. They're a core part of sales and sales management, and everyone messes them up. It's not the time to tell your rep to "sell more" or "good job." It's an opportunity to coach, answer questions and help your reps become better. In this episode, Paul talks about the pitfalls of sales pipelines and shares advice on making them better for managers and reps. Enjoy the show!

Data-driven decision-making is crucial to business success. So in this episode, Paul and Fab talk about the main sales and marketing metrics you should follow to determine success. Enjoy the show!

In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss and share advice on how to structure your revenue teams. We discuss some of the main ways to structure teams, which to choose and why. But, most importantly, we discuss what core question you need to ask yourself when looking to structure or restructure sales and marketing.

In this episode, we'll talk about how to build and scale your first sales department. We'll talk about: Understanding your DNA when you're a founder/business owner and why it's super important to understand before you start scaling. Why you need to have a clear idea of what you're looking for in a rep and what's worked for you so far BEFORE you hire someone Why the interview process is so tricky The three pillars of sales success Why coaching is the most important thing a founder/owner can do with the sales team How to use marketing to increase chances salespeople will want to work for you

In this episode, Paul and Fab go back and forth on some of the hottest topics in sales and marketing. No fuss, just value. If you want to learn about: Is prospecting a quantity or quality game? Do sales departments hate CRMs? Are sales scripts relevant? Call scripts, demo scripts, etc. What's the role of sales collateral (case studies, blog posts, one-pagers)? What Paul & Fab wish every marketer knew ...and so much more. Listen today to get highly tactical advice to help you get better.

Sales targets, call targets, email targets, deal-stage conversion ratios. You name it. Salespeople are measured. Sales leaders track every action (or lack thereof). The goal is to help. It might not be obvious. But everything is tracked to optimize results to help reps have success (i.e., earn more commission) and, therefore, help the company gain more clients. But can that also lead to failure? With all that emphasis on sales results, are reps forgetting one of the keys to success is helping their customers?   In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss how (if) reps can change their mindset from selling to helping.

How to make sales "easier?" Marketing is the answer. But beyond lead generation, nurturing and scoring, there's branding. Getting your brand known and talked about is crucial - for both B2C and B2B brands.  In this episode, Paul and Fab sit down to talk to Manon Lapierre, ex-P&G Communications Director and IBM marketer, to talk about marketing in 2021 and how to get people to talk about you.

In this episode, Paul and Fab go back and forth on some of the hottest topics in sales and marketing. No fuss, just value. Learn about: When should you consider marketing? Video prospecting. What percentage of revenue should be spent on marketing? What's the one sales question you need to ask? Is marketing an extension of sales? What does the company revenue growth stack look like? What's the role of social media in sales? Do you need marketing when you aren't trying to achieve hypergrowth? Can everyone be a good salesperson? What is inbound marketing? What is outbound marketing? Can sales have success without marketing?   Listen today to get highly tactical advice to help you get better.

Selling looks different in every industry. Where the leads come from, what the sales process looks like, even who the salespeople are.   But something looks the same.   In this episode, Paul and Fab talk to Eric Tremblay of Coaching Financier Trek to understand sales and marketing in the financal & insurance space.

You heard it. You probably lived it. Marketers send leads over to sales... and salespeople complain. "These leads are sh*t!!" It's probably the most pervasive point of friction in enterprise sales and marketing. And today, Paul and Fab will explain why this happens and how to address it.

You've prospected. You have new marketing leads.   A client just referred someone new.   You send an email. You call.   You message them on LinkedIn.   Then nothing. No initial interest, no more sales effort.   Why is that?   In this episode, Paul and Fab advise on stopping dropping the ball and following up with sales leads more effectively.

From time-to-time, it's up to reps to collect payments. When clients don't pay, some reps are on the hook to collect. It's not the most comfortable situation - how do you maintain your relationships while act like the "bad cop?" Is it even that detrimental? In this episode, Paul and Fab riff on how to collect payments from delinquent clients.

It doesn’t need to be said out loud. But the world’s changing. And every time we turn a corner, it seems to change again. The customer has taken control of the sales cycle and the brand. That supply has or will exceed demand. To adapt, companies must reinvent how they connect with their customers, prospects, employees, and communities. Mapping the customer journey, understanding how and why your customer buys from you is critical to solidifying a brand’s positioning and adapting to the digital age. In this episode, Paul and Fab speak with Elke Steinwender, Founder and President of Maïeutyk, to understand how companies need to adapt to changing customer behaviours and expectations.

You know it. We know it. It almost isn't worth repeating, but 2020 has been crazy.   A lot has changed, but is it a sign of a new reality or changes all still temporary? Is remote selling here to stay? Is content changing? Will consumer needs for socializing change the way we sell and market? How should you set your sales and marketing goals for the new year?   In this episode, Paul and Fab riff on what salespeople and marketers can expect from the year to come.

2021 - get it right. We don't need to say 2020's been special.  We aren't living the most straightforward moment in history right now.  But that doesn't mean you can't try your best to get it started properly.   In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss what you can do today to get the most out of the new year.

Can you answer these questions? How much revenue will you generate next month? How many qualified leads will you get? How active are your salespeople? Data-driven sales and marketing are, ultimately, the key to success. Without it, decisions are political and personality-driven. With the right data, you can make educated decisions and run critical tests. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about the B2B sales and marketing data you need to follow religiously.

What technology should you use to power your sales and marketing efforts? The first question to ask is, what's the tech's role? Technology alone won't get you more revenue. Your software is a tool. But with the right tool in hand, you can expand your results. That's why, in this episode, Fab and Paul talk about different sales and marketing technology available.

Sales engineering is a hybrid role. Somewhere between Engineering and Sales. The role tends to exist in industrial and commercial markets where decisions are more complex and based on more technical information and rational analysis, and less on emotion. But is that truly the case?   In this episode, Paul and Fab explore the role of Sales Engineering with their guest André Sauvé: What does a Sales Engineer do? How do you become one? What skills do you need to become a Sales Engineer?

You have sales. You have marketing. But how do you tie them together? Two strong groups are good, but with two strong groups that work together with standard definitions and a process that blends into one another, you're almost unstoppable. How do you make that happen? In this episode, Paul and Fab share their thoughts on building your sales and marketing process.

Podcasts are an excellent way for businesses to create content. For most, it's easier to speak about a topic than to write about it. The content is also a lot more flexible - a lot easier to share and adapt. While they've been around for a long time, their popularity has exploded.  And the problem for many is still understanding how they fit in their overall sales and marketing process. So in this episode, Paul and Fab share their experience and advice on how to use them strategically.   Specifically, they look to explain: How to launch a podcast How to promote a podcast  How to generate leads and revenue

Marketers often struggle to show their value. The reason is that they don't tie their efforts back to revenue. So they become whatever the owner believes marketing is. Don't get me wrong. Branding efforts are crucial to financial success. The problem is it isn't always clear how. So marketers need both types of efforts - revenue and brand. When revenue efforts produce results, brand efforts are accepted and even encouraged. In this episode, Paul and Fab explain how to set-up a marketing process that will help you tie your marketing efforts back to revenue.

How should your marketing team look? What about your sales team? What makes a winning sales team? How do you organize your sales team? What is the sale structure? How do you build a successful sales organization? What makes a good marketing team? How do you structure a content team? How is the marketing department organized?  What are the different elements of the marketing mix, and what is their importance in marketing? Whether your planning for next year or not, your team's size and composition are on every manager and business leader's mind. In this episode, Paul and Fab share their experience to help you structure your sales and marketing teams.

In sales, we talk a lot about asking questions. Because when you ask questions, you get a better understanding of your prospect's reality, what their real problem is, when they'd like to solve it and why... That's all good in theory. But in reality, what does that mean? You know, when the prospect is busy, determined and confident that they know their problem and how much they want to spend. When do you, as a salesperson, know when you've asked enough questions? When can you finally present something? In today's episode, Fab challenges Paul to explain how a rep can decide if they've asked enough questions. Enjoy the show!

What does your marketing manager do daily? What does your sales manager do every day? What do sales managers even do? What are the duties and responsibilities of a marketing manager? Is marketing management stressful? How many hours does a sales manager work? What skills do you need to be a marketing manager? What should a sales manager know?   What the leading duo responsible for revenue and growth do every day is often a mystery. But as a sales or marketing manager, you must understand if you're useful so you can know when there are problems early on - before it's "too late." In this episode, Paul and Fab share advice on making sure you're doing what they need to do.

The reason SEO is still important today because it's great for lead generation or B2B sales. When you're in B2B marketing, you have so many opportunities to market online or to market across digital channels - on Facebook, on LinkedIn, and other social networks. You can target so many demographics, you know, hit any gender age, group professional you want. One thing that other channels don't do for you is it doesn't really let you reach that consumer or that lead or that user when they're actively looking to purchase your products or your services with search, whether it's an organic search on the SEO side or paid search. So, you're engaging users who are already actively looking for what you're offering. They're typing it into a search bar in this, in that kind of sense. They're one step down the conversion funnel already. So for that reason, despite the different traffic sources online, SEO traffic remains some of the highest value traffic on a transactional level and some of the highest converting traffic when it's targeted of course.

They go hand-in-hand. Peanut butter and jelly. Canadians and hockey. Selling and objections. When you're in sales, your prospects will object. They'll push back, both overtly and not. It's not about you. It's about the clients - they have fear. Fear of getting fired, making the wrong decision, looking weak, not sure of their place, and unsure what they need. In this episode, Paul and Fab will talk about handling those objections with your selling chops and marketing efforts.

Here's the problem salespeople face. Sales is about asking questions...   But they stop asking questions the second they hit an answer they know they can solve.  What's the problem with that?  Often, those questions are surface questions.  To increase your chances of "closing," you need to dive deeper. Like Simon Sinek says - you need to find the "why."  When you understand why something's a problem for a client (as opposed to only the "what"), you can talk to the real issues and look to solve those.  Everyone can solve the "what," only a few work on the "why."   How do you do it? Paul and Fab talk about it in this episode.

You know the drill... At some point or another during the conversations, your prospect will ask you about your cost. It could be early on, or it could late in the sales process.  Regardless, it's going to happen. In this episode, Paul and Fab are going to show you how to answer the price question... Enjoy!

In this episode, Paul leverages learnings from previous episodes to review and critique Fab's own sales process. In this episode, you'll see what a sales process looks like in HubSpot, as well as the questions you should ask your self about your sales process.   ⭐⭐ Want to be part of a secret group of sales & marketing folks. Text us at (438) 601-1595 for exclusive content and personalized answers to your questions. ⭐⭐

Building a robust sales process is the key to success in sales. It's not a set of things to do or a project management tool. Each step has a particular reason for being and should act as a go/no-go for the following action. In the end, it should accurately predict revenue and allow sales and marketing to close more deals. In this episode, Paul helps Fab build his own sales process. ⭐⭐Join our free, exclusive sales & marketing community. Text us at (438) 601-1595 ⭐⭐

If hiring were a science there would be no mistakes.   But it's not.   It isn't easy.   Is the candidate good? Will the be good after we hire them? Will they fit? Will I like working with them?  Those are only a few of the questions recruiters have when they're hiring.   In this episode, Paul and Fab take the time to break down the important things to consider when hiring sales and marketing people.

The demo isn't the end-all, be-all of SaaS sales process.   Asking good and great questions are the best way to close deals.   That doesn't necessarily mean that demos are useless. It's more a question of how you demo your SaaS product demo that's critical.

A buyer... Your buyers go through a particular journey before they decide to buy something. So it's essential to understand those steps. Why? So you can create content for each stage to help and encourage your prospect along the way. Understanding your customer's journey can help reduce costs, increase leads. In this episode, Paul and Fab riff on how your customer's journey impacts your sales and marketing efforts.

Is the way most B2B SaaS salespeople sell is: Demo, proposal, follow-up, close.   But is that the right way to do it? Could you be winning more business with a better sales process? Are you being consultative? Is there a better way? In this episode, Paul and Fab review the current way most B2B SaaS sell to help them improve sales results.

How most sales and marketing teams think about CRMs is wrong. Most people think a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system helps manage customer data. OK. The definition isn't wrong, but it isn't complete either. Ultimately your CRM helps you generate more revenue. If your tool doesn't allow you to make more money, it's not a worthy investment. Your CRM should help: your salespeople close more deals by getting them to follow an optimized sales process your sales leaders coach their sales reps on specific weaknesses they have based on what they see in the system your marketing team build better emails, nurturing processes, and even improve your overall communications based on the info they can pull. This episode is part 1 of our CRM series. Today, we cover the what, how and why of an excellent CRM tool. Enjoy the show!

Generating leads for your sales team is critical. Inbound leads tend to convert better than outbound ones. But they're also easier to work with because you can ask for permission to email them to share more value. The challenge? A lot of brands struggle with lead generation. Especially more traditional companies who haven't fully embraced the web and social media In this episode, Fab shares with Paul a few things you need to increase the number of leads you generate for your business. Enjoy the show!

You know this. Right? People buy with their emotions. Even those B2B buyers you're selling to right now. Emotions come from something you genuinely care about. Your core motivations like: Getting promoted Being the best Doing meaningful work Buying a house Going on vacation... The list goes on. The thing is, it's not always clear what their driving motivation is. Your job as a salesperson and marketer is to get to that core motivation - the one that drives emotion. It's OK to figure out your prospect needs accounting software because they're having a hard time keeping track of AR. It's a different ballgame if you figure out they need to keep better track of AR because the person who fixes the problem has a good chance of getting promoted to CFO. And being CFO has been their dream since college, and they'd be the first in their class to get that position. In this episode, Paul explains how to get to that driving motivation.

You can do everything right. You're making your calls, sending your emails, connecting on LinkedIn, sharing content, but sometimes, things just don't click. No one is answering, calling back, answering... no matter what you do, it just doesn't work. It's tough and demotivating. Enter Paul Lafleur. In today's episode, Paul explains how you can get out of the funk. Fab explains how marketers can adapt those lessons for their day-to-day.

They happen all the time. They can happen anytime. And they aren't always obvious. Objections can throw off the best reps for many reasons: Not sure how to deal with them Not aware that there's an objection Too excited Too emotionally invested in the deal... In this episode, Paul explains to Fab how a rep should go about handling sales objections.

Creating content... We've been talking about creating content for 10+ years now. Content helps you sell and market. With it, you grow and become an expert. It helps build trust. It's a win-win option. So why don't people do it more? In this episode Fab and Paul help you build trust with your clients and potential customers

What's the goal of every salesperson?  Close the deal.  Sure, closing deals is the job. But it also means one step closer to being a top rep and getting a commission.  But how do you close a deal? People paint it as the ultimate step, but Paul explains how it's much more organic than that. If executed properly, closing should end up being the logical conclusion of your sales process.  Enjoy the show!

We won't hide it...   Sales meetings can be brutal.   But they can also be great. They can motivate, inspire, push and bring the team to the next level.   If you're struggling with your sales meetings, this episode is for you.

Don't you ❤ it when you work a prospect hard only for them to tell you, "let me think about it" or "it's too expensive"? Does it make you angry? Nervous? Anxious or stressed? Those are examples of resistance, and most salespeople aren't aware that's what it is. It's not that the prospect is going to go back to their desk and ponder the question. Your potential clients are delaying; they're afraid to pull the trigger. And that's normal. It's nothing against you. There are a lot of different types of objections, and they can all impede your sales success if you don't know how to handle it well. In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss how to lower resistance to close more deals.

Salespeople need selling skills. OK. That's obvious. But what about your marketers? It's not a far stretch to think that they need to understand sales. OK, but what about your accountants, HR specialists, and developers? The truth is that everyone, at every organization, from time to time, needs to sell their ideas internally: we need new accounting software, we need to rewrite the code, etc. There are two ways to go about it: the way that might get you what you want, and the way that will probably end in frustration. You see, what most don't realize (👈 even most salespeople and sales leaders) is that most sales skills are listening and communication skills. Learn how to sell your ideas internally today. Enjoy the show!

Most sales and marketing meetings are a waste of time. A good meeting has value, and to setup a good meeting you need to start with on critical question... Enjoy the show!

Don't stop hiring because you're not used to remote work. If you're not used to remote work, it can be daunting to recruit someone these days.  How will they build a relationship with the team?  How will you onboard them?  How will you get to "read" them during the interview?   I shared a few tips on the subject with Paul yesterday.   Enjoy the show!

What happens if your marketing just doesn't work anymore? We live through a unique and challenging time. That can mean that what you did only a few weeks ago is no longer relevant. If that's the case, what should you do? Paul and Fab answer that question today. Enjoy the show!

If you're unhappy with your sales results, this episode is for you. A sales process is one of the critical parts of sales. A good sales process will help your reps close more deals. That said, it's still one of the misunderstood concepts in the field. Paul and Fab dive deep on the topic and cover all the core elements of a good sales process and what reps (and marketers too!) should do at each stage. Enjoy the show, and if you enjoyed it, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating!

Closing down your company isn't an easy choice.  Paul and Fab, share a few quick tips that could help you as a business owner and your employees. Hope this helps!

How can sales and marketing teams maintain their quotas during a crisis? Maybe you aren't asking the right question. Hoping a sales team can close the same amount of deals and marketing can generate the same amount of leads isn't realistic, but there are things you can and must do... Enjoy!

What if you need to let go of some of your sales and marketing staff? Saying goodbye to teammates is never easy, but sometimes you have to do it. In this short episode, we share a few tips on how you can go about doing that.

In this episode, Paul and Fab sit down (virtually!) with Frederic Lucas - founder of Prima Resource, a successful sales consulting firm.  Fred outlines in detail what he did to become the successful entrepreneur he is today. We dive deep into tactical and psychological elements as well as the frame of mind you need to get through difficult economic and social times. Enjoy the show! As always, if you like what you hear, please take a few seconds to give us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Keeping your sales activities up during a crisis isn't easy. What do you say? Should you even call? Maybe an email/LinkedIn message instead? If your business is running, you have to continue selling. That's why Paul and Fab do four role-play sessions to illustrate how to do your cold calls, and how not to. Enjoy the episode. Leave a comment below. 👇

When significant events hit, it's not always clear what you should do with your sales and marketing efforts. Do you stop everything? But what about the business Is it business as usual? But is it really Do you increase efforts? Decrease efforts? Fab and Paul share some thoughts on the topic.

The economy is shifting, and businesses that invest in marketing can thrive. Of course, sales are also a must. That's why we sat down with Corrine to talk about how she gained 29,000 followers on LinkedIn and how that impacted her business - CAM Inc., a talent acquisition firm. In this episode, we explore how to balance sales and marketing to build a thriving business.

Tough days happen. If rough times get you down, there's a good chance it means that you aren't controlling your emotions - you're not able to stay in the moment. How we deal with our emotions (positive ones too!) can further impact our performance. In this episode, we talk about why emotions affect your performance and share a few tips on how to stay in the moment. Enjoy the show!

Properly qualifying and disqualifying prospects is a crucial part of sales success. You don't want to rely on a rep's emotions to disqualify a lead. You don't want a dead deal to stay in the pipeline "because they might close one day." Those behaviours falsify your projections and impact your business's bottom line. So how do you qualify a lead? You set up objective milestones in your sales process that your reps have to cross. In this episode, you'll learn How to set-up objective milestones What kind of milestones you need at different stages of your sales process What information marketing should aim to discover. And so much more... Enjoy the show!

In this episode, Paul and Fab discuss value selling. They took a low-price item with no apparent value to show you how to do it. Ultimately the value of a service (or product) is determined by how important what you sell is for a client. But selling on value isn't only a sales thing. Marketing plays a vital role too... Are your sales and marketing set-up to sell value?

In this episode, Paul and Fab talk to Rob Geller, co-founder of Promenaid. Rob offers up a lot of advice to people just starting their business - from how to be a 🥇 seller on Amazon to the psychology of success. Enjoy the show!

"At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel." * Most prospects won't remember ➕90% of what you say during a call... ... but when you're mindful and listen intently to what they are telling you, you'll have a great conversation with them. They'll feel comfortable enough to talk about their actual problems. After all the tricks, the tactics, the data, soft skills are what allow you to have the great conversations you need. Discover the soft sales skills that allow you to have great conversations. *Maya Angelou

In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about negotiation. Compromises are often a part of sales, but we show you how to reduce chances that you'll be that situation. But sometimes it's unavoidable, so we also show you how to negotiate. Enjoy! Don't forget to subscribe...

Do you need to up your cold calling game? This episode is for you. Believe it or not, cold calling is alive and well. It's not a failure to generate enough inbound leads; it's how most companies grow. When reps reach out to prospects, they encounter 3 scenarios: Easy calls - these are what sales dreams are made of. Reps land on someone who knows they have a problem, haven't solved it yet and are willing to speak with them to see if they can help Medium calls - the prospect isn't welcoming, but they aren't hostile either. They don't open up about their problems, but with a little persistence, reps can book a meeting. Difficult calls - these are the calls that make reps fear and avoid cold calls. Not every first conversation will turn into a discovery session, but everyone is a learning opportunity. In this episode, Paul coaches Fab through the three types of calls with a series of role-plays. As always, if you like what you hear, please take a few seconds to give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review!

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion." -- Dale Carnegie. Should salespeople leverage their prospects' underlying emotions? In short, yes. Buyers (even in B2B) buy on with emotion. How do you leverage emotions? By asking good and great questions. Early on, you need to identify with the client's emotions. Later, it would be best if you uncovered feelings. When salespeople ask the right questions, they understand what's essential for a client, and when something's important, you get emotional.  The biggest challenge to leveraging emotions?  When reps aren't comfortable asking questions, it's hard for them to uncover their client's feelings. Enjoy the episode! If you like what you heard, please take a few seconds to give us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We misunderstand motivation. Especially entrepreneurs - they're usually motivated by building their business or what that business does for them. They can't understand why their team isn't as motivated as they are. The thing is, motivation comes from within. It's up to individuals and their managers to discover what long-term goals motivate us and what we can do to get there - not to find a motivational podcast or book. In today's episode, we explore how managers can motivate their salespeople and their marketing teams: How to help your organization determine what motivates them. What's the role of a sales commission in motivation. The role of company culture Did you like this episode? Please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lindsay's a motorsports fan. He participated for 20 years and still follows the sport actively. Thinking back, he shares how his passion for the sport helped groom his entrepreneurial abilities: The commitment to success and winning, The accountability, The value of teamwork, The need for success. How to reset each day. It's the same combination of striving for success, competitiveness and teamwork that allows for success in business. As usual, if you like what you hear, please, please, please leave us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review!

In today's episode, we continue our conversation with Lindsay Riddell. When you're a small business, marketing is a contradiction. On the one hand, budgets are limited, so there's constant pressure to use every cent wisely. On the other, ROI is difficult. You'll never be able to outspend the more prominent players in the space.  Today we talk about: The changing marketing landscape The ROI of marketing vs. branding  Why SMBs need to focus on branding Why patience matters in marketing How to use client events to generate content If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few moments to give us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Today we talk to Lindsay Riddell - President and Founder of Luminet. This conversation is the first of three and today we talk about why you should ignore what people say. Don't worry about new shiny tactics. Pounding the pavement and getting new business is all that matters.  We get very tactical: Why focusing on your customers is critical to business success. Tactical sales tips for entrepreneurs. The importance of patience. Why you dress in a way that makes you feel comfortable. A critical daily routine. You can find Lindsay on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-riddell/ And Luminet Solutions at: https://luminet.ca/ As usual, if you like what you hear, please take a few seconds to give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Patience is a critical success factor in sales and marketing. A lot of small and medium-sized businesses put themselves in a situation where there back is against the wall, and they need results fast. Unfortunately, that often leads to bad sales and marketing behaviour. In today's episode, we talk about: Why it's OK to start your sales process over Why the marketing around marketing tech is misleading How businesses start doing bad marketing Why marketing automation is dangerous Why marketing tools don't help What to do if you need to get new revenue quickly Are you enjoying the show? Please take a few minutes and give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review.

Good marketing takes time. There are some quick wins, but overall, you need to be patient. That means you have to start today.  When you're small, you're never going to compete against the big players with the big budgets, so forget about generating leads. Focus on building your brand instead (which, in turn, will help generate leads). And to build a brand, you need to create content. In this episode, we: Set expectations about the role of marketing Outline the three important elements to consider when creating content Share some tips on how to create content and set time aside in your busy calendar. Share tools to help create videos, articles and social posts Thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please take a few seconds and give us ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In sales, asking questions is everything. When you don't ask questions, you end up with a sort of idea of what you think the prospect wants, and you have an idea of what you think you want. Whether that's what the prospect wants is pure luck. A discovery session is about trying to find out what's important to that person, what the challenges are, why they want to fix them. You're trying to find out what is going to make them happy. Great questions help you decide how we're going to work together. Thanks for listening to this episode. If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Quantifying a problem - figuring out what your product or service is worth to your client is a significant part of knowing if you'll get the contract. Sometimes it's trickier than others, but ultimately everything had a value. You might not always be able to attach a dollar amount up-front to every problem, but you can work with the person in front of you to understand the impact of their current situation. Do you sell graphic design services? What's the impact of bad design? Do you sell accounting services? What's the impact of lousy bookkeeping? Do you sell branding services? What's the impact of not being known? Specifically, in this episode, we talk about: How do you know if a discovery call/meeting with a prospect went well How to deliver proposals How to quantify a prospect's problem Why quantifying a problem doesn't necessarily mean $ for $ The biggest blocker to quantifying a problem is telling instead of asking Like what you're hearing? Please take a few seconds to give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review!

SMBs tend not to market where their clients are. They either make assumptions about what their audience does, or they mistake themselves for their audience. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about: Why businesses don't want to market where their clients are, The ivory tower approach to marketing, Why people fail on social networks, Why you should often post on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, How to have success on different social platforms, How social media platforms evolve. Knowing your corporate values.

The words we use to describe the people sales and marketing speak and engage with everyday dehumanize those we seek out. Not all software is flexible enough to accommodate a change in vocabulary. Still, it's time for you to scratch words like Suspect, Prospect, Lead, MQL and Opportunity from your sales and marketing vocabulary. In this short episode, we talk about: What you need to understand about all your leads, prospects and hot prospects The beauty of social media + sales Why change the way you refer to leads and prospects How simple words like lead or opportunity confuse salespeople and marketers Did you like this episode? Please, please, please take a few seconds to give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

At some point, Marketing needs to transfer their leads over to the Sales Team. How much information needs to be collected before they're sent over? How much is too much? Do salespeople actually care about all the collected data? In this episode, we discuss what information Salespeople need when they get a new lead from Marketing. Specifically, we talk about: What a good salesperson should be able to do with every lead Is marketing spending too much money on collecting useless data? Timing is everything

Nurturing new leads that engage with your content helps your sales team speak with those who are most ready to buy. But lead nurturing isn't for everyone. If you don't generate enough leads, you don't need to nurture them. Think of a different approach instead: post-sales conversation nurturing for example. If you do generate enough leads, think about whether you should set-up sequences to increase lead scores or encourage leads to speak with a salesperson. The possibilities are endless - don't copy/paste whatever you find online. Think about what your business needs. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about: What is lead nurturing (0:33) When to set-up a lead nurturing process (1:49) The benefit of lead nurturing (3:20) A trap digital marketers fall in (4:02) Different types of lead nurturing (4:41) How to do lead nurturing (8:01)

Fab had a major epiphany!  He's a marketing person. The core of his career is email and social media, and he came to realize that... Cold calls > Cold emails Why Cold Calling Is Important? Live conversation encourage action. Emails aren't a conversational tool. LinkedIn Messages either. You send, you wait. When things slow down, it's easier for them to breakdown. Specifically in this episode, we talk about: Why cold calls are better than cold emails (0:53) The challenge with emails and LinkedIn Messages (1:52) The cold call's big opportunity (3:00) What you need to understand about emails (4:30) How to make cold calling a little easier if you're nervous (6:16) Enjoy and thanks for listening!  If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Disqualifying leads is difficult for both salespeople and marketers. There are leads who clearly don't qualify, but even when they're the right fit on paper, you sometimes need to walk away. People don't disqualify leads for a ton of reasons, but the two big ones are: Because they have bosses who prefer full pipelines than accurate pipelines Because they aren't asking the right questions, so they don't realize the fit isn't there. In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about: Why marketers don't disqualify leads (1:03) Why salespeople keep working bad leads (2:42) The other reason sales and marketing folks don't disqualify (9:13) Enjoy and thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this episode, Paul and Fab talk about empathy and how it affects the relationship with leads and clients, both on the sales and the marketing side. Specifically: Why most reps don't take the time to listen (1:00) Why features and benefits aren't the endpoints (3:31) What is empathy in sales and marketing (6:18) Why marketers have a hard time using empathy (7:33) One way to develop empathy in marketers (8:46) How to develop empathy in salespeople (11:56) How marketers should reframe their interactions with leads (13:06) Why salespeople and marketers are so afraid to disqualify bad leads (15:51) Enjoy and thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

In this episode, Fab tries to cold call a VP on the air. We also talk about gatekeepers, emails and their role when prospecting. How to get past gatekeepers (1:05) What to keep in mind when you're nervous making cold calls (2:25) Live cold call! (4:50) What type of voicemail to leave (6:16) What's the role of email when you're prospecting (8:07) What's the best time to make cold calls (9:59) What's the best time to send a cold email (10:11) Why cold calls are still better than cold emails (11:09) More on how to handle gatekeepers (16:15) The greatest danger with emails (18:35) How to manage @gmail addresses when you're a B2B marketer (22:57) If you're going to send a cold email, this is how to do it (25:19) Enjoy and thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

CRMs! Wrong or incomplete data in the CRM impacts every facet of the business. It affects your ability to reach out to leads, nurture them, target them with ads. It also influences revenue prediction and pipeline analysis. Above all, CRM is a tool to help your salespeople. If salespeople aren't using the CRM, it's usually a sign that something else is wrong. In this episode we cover: How a marketing department should use the CRM (0:37)  Why CRMs aren't always good for salespeople (1:44) How can CRMs help salespeople (3:29) How to switch CRMs (5:41) What's the primary job of a CRM? (6:53) What happens when you pick the wrong CRM (10:57) Enjoy and thanks for listening! If you like what you hear, please give us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The elevator pitch is your opening statement. When you meet someone, and you want to tell them what you do, but you want to have it resonate with them - that's what we call the elevator pitch.  In this episode, we talk about: Why most elevator pitches fail (1:05) Why emotions are a critical component of elevator pitches (3:28) How to create your elevator pitch (6:48) What marketing should do with your elevator pitch (11:33)