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”Unless you are the lead dog, your view never changes.” On the Sales Lead Dog podcast, CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith talks with exceptional sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest and achieved a sales leadership role in their organization. Hear what they did to become the alpha, lead their pack, and how they leverage CRM technology to drive sales for their organization. If your goal is to rise higher in your sales career or you currently are the alpha, this podcast gives you useful insight on how the best-of-the-best achieve success with their team and CRM technology.
Episodes
Monday Jan 18, 2021
Monday Jan 18, 2021
A sales leader is also an educator according to Chris Palmisano, Founding Chief Operating Officer / Chief Revenue Officer at Rocket Dog, a financial services startup specializing in alternative investments. He talks with host Christopher Smith about the role that learning plays in every element of the sales industry, from hiring to advancement to using CRM.
For Chris Palmisano, a passion for learning is what differentiates a bad sales rep from a good one, and it’s also an indicator that someone will be a great sales leader. When he’s hiring, he looks for people who have been successful at something, because it shows that they have a hunger for learning, and the follow-through to make it happen. And he also builds learning into his own work, every single day. For example, he always hires two people at once, so if it doesn’t work out he can determine whether they don’t have the right skill set for the job, or whether he needs to improve as an educator and leader.
Take a close look at sales with a focus on training -- and learn from a top performer in the startup world -- in this episode of Sales Lead Dog!
Quotes
- “Believe it or not, things like ‘what’s the forecast look like,’ get discussed in the boardroom.” (22:35-22:42)
- “As sales professionals we can either evolve, or we can die, and there isn’t really an in between anymore.” (26:32-26:40)
Links:
www.rocketmortgage.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocketdollar/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmpalmisano/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Jan 11, 2021
Monday Jan 11, 2021
What does it take to succeed? If you ask Andrew Ettinger, Chief Revenue Officer at Astronomer, the answer is hustle and curiosity. As a leader in open source and data-focused startups, Andrew stands by his belief that working hard and learning everything you can about your industry can take you as far as you want to go.
Learning was the real driver behind Andrew’s conversation with host Chris Smith, as they dive into Andrew’s career story and how he found himself at Astronomer. When he took the job with his boss and mentor Joe Otto, Andrew knew almost nothing about data pipelines. But Joe was confident he was the right person for the job, and Andrew was passionate about learning. Ten years later, Andrew has taken a lead role in this rapidly growing company, and has become an expert not only in the industry, but in sales and executive leadership.
Andrew and Chris talk about tracking losses in CRM, giving your team room to fail, and what it really means to hustle. At the end of the day, Chris’s definition of working hard is all about customer satisfaction - if the customer is happy, he knows he’s done his job right.
Quotes:
- “Are you willing to go the extra mile to make sure your customer gets what they need?” (19:16-19:22)
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewettinger23/
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Monday Jan 04, 2021
Does 50/50 ad revenue sharing on social media sound impossible? For Chris Emme, Chief Revenue Officer at Tsu, Inc., it’s the norm. Chris Emme talks with host Christopher Smith about Tsu, a new startup that’s helping content creators get the most out of social media, with a platform that reflects the symbiotic relationship between social media platforms and their most influential users.
When social media started, we were just trying to connect the world. Then we thought about how we could use it to maximize distribution of things like news, media, products, and services. But according to Chris Emme, Social Media 3.0 is all about commercializing content creation - and developing a more democratic model for platforms to share revenue with their creators. It’s all about using social media effectively - and that starts from the top down.
Chris shares important lessons he’s learned about resilience, mentorship, and leadership in sales. His primary takeaway? Make it personal, make it real, and meet people where they’re at. If you can take a personal approach and walk in your customer’s shoes, you are already ten steps closer to success than most of your competitors.
Quotes:
- “We face no all the time” (11:33-11:36)
- “Persistence breaks down resistance” (12:42-12:45)
Links:
https://www.tsusocial.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cemme/
Empellor CRM Website
https://www.empellorcrm.com
Empellor CRM LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/empellorcrm
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
https://meetfireside.com/podcast-production-service/
Monday Dec 28, 2020
Monday Dec 28, 2020
“You always go into a situation to learn,” says Kevin Armstrong, Global Enterprise Strategy Leader at ENAVATE. He talks with host Chris Smith about his passion for sales leadership, and how he cultivates an atmosphere of learning, growing, and striving for success.
What are the lessons Kevin tries to impart on his team? You have to want to learn, and you have to go all in to succeed. But despite his passion for going all in, he knows that the key to sales success is being efficient with your time -- and sometimes that means saying no to opportunities that just aren’t right for you or your company. As he tells Chris, there are two winners in every sale: the one who wins and the first one out.
Tune in to hear more of Kevin’s surprising lessons on sales, sales leadership, and how to balance intuitive selling with CRM.
Quotes:
- “You always go into a situation to learn” (3:18-3:21)
- “Ask the person, what is it both personally and professionally that drives you?” (21:49-21:54)
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/armstrongkevin/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Dec 21, 2020
Monday Dec 21, 2020
If you do B2B sales, you need to evaluate Sales Navigator, says Jacob Cynamon-Murphy, Account Strategist for Microsoft Relationship Sales. As the bridge between the LinkedIn and Microsoft sales teams, Jacob is a huge advocate for LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a tool that can help you expand your network, collaborate across departments, and leverage the power of LinkedIn for your sales team.
Jacob has worn many hats in his career -- he has been an end-user, a developer, a consultant, and a seller of CRM solutions. Jacob loves his current role at LinkedIn not only because of the vibrant company culture, but because his position is all about helping sellers better themselves - both within LinkedIn and Microsoft, and as clients using Sales Navigator to expand their reach.
Jacob shares a number of exciting features of Sales Navigator, and explains how Sales Navigator can help your team collaborate, cross-sell, enter and use data more efficiently, and utilize connections across your organization -- even outside the sales department. He also shares words of advice on how to best implement Sales Navigator in your organization. His #1 tip? Start small, go slow, and be agile. The more you can analyze use and make micro-adjustments to learn best practices, the more successful you’ll be.
Quotes:
- “Really, the focus there is on ways to improve the productivity of the sales person by putting the data in the right place.” (19:39-19:50)
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- “Some of the biggest challenges [with CRM] are… assuming a change in technology is going to solve a problem that is not a technology problem.” (32:35-32:47)
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobcynamon/
Find leads and close deals | LinkedIn Sales Solutions : https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Dec 14, 2020
Monday Dec 14, 2020
“Feel the fear and do it anyway,” says Michelle Accardi, President & Chief Revenue Officer at Star2Star Communications. Michelle, who has worked in half a dozen different roles in her long career at Star2Star, prides herself on being agile, and says that agility is one of the most valuable skills for aspiring sales professionals and leaders today.
And serving as President and CRO of Star2Star is no small feat. The company has a startling 99.4% customer retention rate, has been featured on the Forbes Most Promising Companies List, and was named on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 five times in the last six years.
What is the secret to Michelle and Star2Star’s success? The short answer is empathy. Michelle talks with host Chris Smith about a car accident that changed the course of her life in her late 20s, and made her realize that people have lives and challenges beyond their jobs -- and that being attuned to those challenges can help her make a difference in and outside work. For Michelle, active listening is the foundation of successful sales -- and she wishes that universities took the time to teach subjects like ethical sales to aspiring business professionals.
What advice does Michelle have for those starting out in sales careers? Even if you can’t get your foot in the door right away, volunteer to go on sales calls to get a sense of what it’s like to work in that role. Cultivate resilience and perseverance, and be willing to say yes - even if something is new and unfamiliar. If you can work through your own fear, you’ve already won at least half the battle.
Quotes:
- “Feel the fear and do it anyways.” (5:59-6:02)
- So much of sales is just active listening (8:46-8:50)
- “Just being open to things is how I make success happen. I don’t say no often, and when I do it’s generally: ‘No, but…’” (23:33-23:46)
Links:
https://www.star2star.com/partners/become-a-star2star-partner
https://www.star2star.com/demo
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Dec 07, 2020
Monday Dec 07, 2020
“Find a mentor. Smash your quota!” says Jake Green, Enterprise Account Executive at BrieBug. Green has over ten years of business development experience in the software and consulting industries, selling to start-ups and enterprise level organizations alike. His experience as a business development manager has shaped his sales methodology and approach to leadership. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, host Chris Smith talks to Green about what it means to be a good sales leader, and how his background in technology has shaped his perspective on customer relationship management (CRMs).
Green is currently working with Briebug, software development experts who support Fortune 1000 companies with software implementation and management. When asked why he chose to move to Briebug, Green was clear: it’s all about culture. Briebug stands behind their products and guarantees success – and on top of that, they make culture a vital part of their hiring process. As a sales manager, Green knows that you can only make a difference in an organization if you can find a place for yourself within that culture. “Success with a team is just building a great culture,” says Green. Sharing the values and mission of your organization is essential for leadership and sales success.
As a former tech expert with experience in coding and development, Green has a lot to say on CRMs – particularly about finding a CRM that works with your sales team. As someone who has crossed boundaries from technology to sales to business development and consulting, Green is an expert on what it means to find software that supports your team, not just something that adds another step in the process.
What leadership and sales tips does Green have to share with the audience? Set goals for the day that are aligned with new opportunities, and be ready to interrogate how you do and do not meet those goals every week. Green is all about celebrating both success and failures – for him, failure is just another opportunity to learn something new.
Quotes:
- “Success with a team is just building a great culture.” 10:40-10:43
- “Sometimes the best players don’t make the best coaches” 14:12-14:15
- “Being able to share in success but being part of a team that’s really working and cohesive – I think being able to share in your failures and learn from them is important as well.” 18:40-18:51
Links:
https://briebug.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakecgreen/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Nov 30, 2020
Monday Nov 30, 2020
“Slow down to speed up,” says Phillip Gerard, Vice President of Americas Electrical Sales at Panduit. In this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Gerard dives into his people-focused sales techniques, and how he learned that pushing forward doesn’t work if you’re leaving your whole team behind.
Gerard’s career in sales started early. His father was a salesman in the roofing industry, and he often joined his dad on calls. As a teenager, he sold jewelry door-to-door to support a local charity that worked with disabled adults. When he talks about his career, he credits many mentors, who taught him that people are at the heart of not only being a good salesman, but being a good sales leader.
Host Chris Smith guides Gerard through the many lessons of his career, and how he developed his people-focused and team-focused philosophies on sales. At the heart of their chat is customer relationship management. This technical aspect of the sales process might seem like a straightforward tool, but for Gerard, CRM also has people at its heart.
“The mistake that people make is that they say, ‘I’m going to put in a CRM because I have a sales problem.’” Gerard says. “And I always say, solve the sales problem first.”
From learning how to slow down and talk to your team with kindness and compassion to personalizing your CRM to fit your team’s unique sales strategy, Gerard talks frankly about what it means to work in sales today, and how his career in sales has helped him grow not just as a seller, but as an individual.
Quotes:
- “The same care that you have when speaking to your children – everything you say as a leader is also influential” 5:48-5:54
- “Slow down to speed up” 6:26-6:28
- “Look at the activities you are spending your time on. Are they forwarding your strategy or are they just reactions to things that are happening?” 23:37-23:48
- “The mistake that people make is that they say, ‘I’m going to put in a CRM because I have a sales problem.’ And I always say, solve the sales problem first.” 24:59-25:07
Links:
www.panduit.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillipgerard/
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Nov 23, 2020
Monday Nov 23, 2020
“The power of silence is incredible.”
Join your host Chris Smith and guest, John Lund, Founder, and Executive Coach, as they discuss his sales coaching and training journey. Over his career, sales coach John Lund noticed a pattern of frustration between salespeople and business leadership, leading him to start MYB2BCOACH. Through MYB2BCOACH, John and his team offer training and coaching to struggling salespeople, empowering them to work at a “confident and comfortable level.” John has a passion for helping small and mid-size firms grow by providing solutions that make his clients more profitable.
In 1995, John Lund founded OFFWIRE Inc. Twice recognized as one of Omaha’s fastest-growing businesses and three times on the INC 5000 fastest-growing companies list. Recently, OFFWIRE completed a successful sale to a world-renowned distributor. John is also passionate about entrepreneurship and is heavily involved with the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), supporting over 10,000 members in 138 chapters worldwide.
What does John wish he were taught when he got his first job? Quoting from one of his inspirations, Dr. Bell, John wishes to “to listen from nothing.” Additionally, John talks us through his blog, “Power in Silence” and expounds upon the lost opportunities when we fail to listen, and instead are too busy planning our response.
If you’re considering a transition into a sales leadership role, John warns against simply pursuing a promotion. To establish whether you’d make a better sales leader or salesperson, there are a few key questions to ask yourself, “Do you like coaching? Do you like listening? Do you like holding people accountable for their goals?” These natural leaders may well be better suited to a role as a sales leader.
For those starting out in sales leadership, John recommends two books. The Coaching Habit - Box of Crayons and Kiss Theory Goodbye by Bob Prosen encourage sales coaches to get people to set their own goals and hold them accountable to them. Effective leadership is about understanding the individual and what motivates them, and as John explains, “it’s rarely money”.
Chris and John go on to discuss the AI software John and his team designed for sales training. John likens his AI software to GolfTEC’s golf simulation practice: you watch your swing and the software tells you what corrections you need to make, then with a help of a coach you can learn how to make those adjustments. It’s the most effective way to improve a skill.
So what does the AI software analyze? John lists and explains what is measured and why they’re each important for sales: The speed we talk, talk time vs listening time, quality of open-ended switches, triggering for next steps, stall words, filler words, missed buying signals, and the quality of initial cold call sales pitches.
John then outlines common mistakes that sales leaders make when they first transition into the role. “They want to be the hero for all the salespeople” instead of letting their salesforce develop and learn. It’s a common mistake that John himself admits to having used in his early days as a sales leader.
John shares a funny story - what happened when your luggage with all your clothes and sales training guides don’t get loaded onto your plane? A wardrobe malfunction and a very tired hotel concierge. But John didn’t break a sweat.
Don’t miss John’s answer to Chris’ final question: “CRM, do you love it or hate it?” and remember to check out the MYB2BCOACH YouTube channel, a great resource for anyone in a leadership role. You can find John on LinkedIn and via email: links below.
Quotes:
- “[But if you want to] be the hero that catches the ball and spikes it in the end zone? Then be a salesperson.”
- “If you can define what winning looks like for the team, and what winning looks like for an individual in their own words, they want to win. [...] give them a game plan with metrics and milestones with what winning looks like.”
- “The AI software is a really huge tool as part of the coaching.”
- “Being human is really good for sales.”
- “The goal is not to know everything and show that you’re the smartest cat in the room. The goal is to ask smart questions, listen, and if your solution is a good fit, then move forward with the next steps.”
Links:
The Coaching Habit - Box of Crayons
Kiss Theory Goodbye - Bob Prosen
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing
Monday Nov 16, 2020
Monday Nov 16, 2020
“If you see someone helping unsolicited someone else [...] you can see it in your team. Some protect their patch, and some are willing to share”. Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Sales Dog podcast with your host, Chris Smith. On today’s show, Chris talks to Scott Vince, VP of Sales and Marketing of Capricorn Diversified Systems, an international company providing an array of technological services to big-name clients such as Microsoft, Costco, Domino’s Pizza, and General Motors.
Scott begins by reflecting on some key moments in his career: the people who most inspired him and his feelings upon closing his first major sale. When asked what he wished he had known when he started his first job in sales, Scott replies,
“The ability to listen is a critical component in any sales situation[...] to have empathy for the people that you’re trying to listen to so you can understand and reiterate that into some kind of solution for them.”
With a wealth of experience in sales coaching in sales training in leadership roles, Scott shares advice for people starting out in sales and for those who are looking to step into a sales leadership role. Perseverance, managing your time and building your relationships, and managing them correctly are all important attributes for a successful salesperson. But what makes a leader stand out in a salesforce? Selflessness. Seeing someone go above and beyond to offer sales coaching recommendations to a member of their team.
Next, Chris and Scott discuss simple and timeless sales training advice. What kind of questions should your sales team be asking? How do you control first impressions and convey a professional approach? What daily habits should you cultivate in your salesforce?
At a time when many people in sales are experiencing rejection and delays, Chris asks Scott how he coaches his sales team to deal with rejection.
“You’re always going to have doors that are closed in your face, and you’ve to have a thick skin and the ability to understand that the next one is going to be a success.”
This attitude, as Scott explains, is distilled into what has become somewhat of a mantra amongst Scott’s organization: “a positive approach gets positive results.” Adopting this point of view increases an organization’s chance of success.
In the final part of the show, Chris asks Scott about leveraging CRM in organizations. Scott affirms that CRM is a cornerstone of any successful organization. It helps him and his team manage their sales pipeline in an organized manner. It’s particularly useful as a sales leader to see clear metrics on how your team is doing.
Scott stresses the importance of full commitment to CRM training. In order to see real ROI on your investment, you have to make sure your whole team is dedicated to using the tools correctly. “And that’s true with anything,” says Scott. Scott emphasizes the importance of fully training your sales team, whether on Microsoft Excel or Dynamics 365.
Stay tuned to hear Scott’s keys to getting the sales team engaged in CRM. It all comes back to this idea of empathy and understanding the motivations of your team:
“Showing [your salesforce] how they can be more successful, creating efficiencies in their ability to manage their ‘patch’ and understand how that toolset can lead to their success and create more time and energy towards that success, it’s easy once they see that.”
Quotes:
- “The ability to listen is a critical component in any sales situation.”
- “Have empathy for the people that you’re trying to listen to so you can understand and reiterate that into some kind of solution for them.”
- “Some protect their patch, and some are willing to share.”
Links:
Capricorn Diversified Systems Website
scott.vince@cdsonline.com
chris.smith@empellorcrm.com
Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing