In this episode, the Modern Marketing Podcast welcomes the 'Modern Sales Guy,' Sean Piket. Sean is founder and CEO of two successful businesses, Sales Integrity and MyCoachSite, and has over 24 years of experience in "selling the invisible" in the B2B world. He's participated in the scaling of several companies as a doer and leader and has watched businesses scale from single-digit millions to multimillions.

 

How do you achieve growth like that? According to Sean, certainly not by 'winging it.' Join Adam and Sean as they explain why effectively scaling your business comes down to strategy and preparation plus tips you can apply to boost sales authentically and ethically in your business.

 

Episode Discussions:

 

• Why you should think twice about hiring a large company sales rep
• Common hiring mistakes and avoiding high turnover rates
• Create structure for new hires with the perfect 90-day onboarding plan
• The 3 meaningful components of a sales operation
• The 4 cornerstones of lead generation success when generating your own leads
• How to use LinkedIn's Sales Navigator to get referrals
• Having the servant leadership attitude
• The #1 sales killer and the simple solution
• Common factors of successfully scaled businesses
• Cultivating a strategic network
• Why you should get over your fear of asking for referrals
• How to create free training videos to educate new hires
• To cold call or not to cold call?
• The importance of context in sales
• Human to human connection and the power of the phone
• Why you should market to customer challenges over goals
• A prescription for selling success
• Social selling and how to approach social media strategically
• Why preparation will make your sales "pop"
• How to tailor your messaging that targets only your ideal audience

4:32

Sean's story

• Started career in IT consulting
• Sold custom software
• Has had to sell the invisible in the B2B world
• Moved to Dallas, TX in 99'
• Launched Sales Integrity in 2004 and built his business model around preparation and strategy

 

6:56

Sean created MyCoachSite (software platform for coaches) after seeing a gap in the market.

 

7:49

Common factors of successfully scaled businesses:

3 meaningful components of a sales operation:

1. Sales talent
2. Sales performance
3. Sales management

A profile of the right sales pro for your company to make good hiring decisions

A sound sales recruiting and hiring process in place and a program that allows them to ramp up sales talent at a faster rate than on their own.

 

10:29

"If you don't provide the structure [for new hires], they're going to go create it themselves."

 

10:56

How to create free training videos to educate new hires:

Use a free tool like Zoom to create video tutorials that get new hires up to speed on your company branding, messaging, products, services, how you go to market, etc.

Use as repeatable, reusable orientation material that trains them at the right pace.

 "Take them to existing customer meetings as well as prospect meetings. That way they begin with the end in mind."

13:11

Activity to pipeline to results:

Have a 90-day onboarding plan

Set the expectations and have a good ramp up plan between 30, 60, 90 days

Create a checklist to make sure they're tracking towards producing results

 

15:14

The 4 cornerstones of lead generation success for people responsible for generating their own leads:

1. Referrals

Sign up for LinkedIn Sales Navigator and run a search against your own network.

 

18:23

 "91% of customers would gladly give referrals to sales professionals yet 11% of sales professionals actually ask for referrals."

 

Common reasons people don't ask for referrals:

• Lack of understanding how valuable it is
• Lack of confidence in their product or contribution
• Don't want to appear sleazy or think it's inappropriate

 

19:06

Lack of confidence is the #1 sales killer and it comes from lack of preparation.

 

21:00

"Preparation applies to everything. Anything in life, not just selling."

21:15

2. Strategic networking or relationships (4 cornerstones cont.)

• If you have a servant/leadership attitude (help others first before asking for help), it makes it easy to ask for help — like referrals.

 

21:54

3. Social selling (4 cornerstones cont.)

• Social platforms shorten your time, allow you to develop relationships, and demonstrate credibility where people will be compelled to want to help you.
• Develop strategic relationships that lead to referrals.

 

22:30

4. Systematic sales messaging (4 cornerstones cont.)

• Combined use of different modes of communication (phone, email, social)
• Prepare the messaging for different selling scenarios. "If you prepare your messaging for every possible selling scenario, you're going to be supremely confident in those settings. That's what sells."

 

23:20

Human connection and the power of the phone

"A lot of the new internet marketers come on and want to make all this money through affiliate marketing and never talk to people…they don't realize the big money involves a conversation."

 

26:52

Approaching social media strategically

• Social technologies make sales and marketing integration important.
• Integrate sales and marketing by forming a cohesive strategy
• Have a lead gen plan with stages and steps and assign roles

 

Social platforms

• It always comes down to your customer first
• Find your ideal client profile and identify their unique challenges, issues, and goals (CIG's)
  • Challenge - negative in nature, problem-oriented, pain related
  • Goal - future looking, positive, growth-oriented
  • Issue - Neutral in nature. Occupies space, time, and attention. If not addressed, it becomes a challenge. If addressed, it's an opportunity to become a goal.
• Pick the top one from each. Focus on the challenge first.
• Use ideal client profile to target your audience with Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, and LinkedIn Navigator
• Address their pain and position your products and services as the solution

 

31:06

Each social platform has their "power talkers" who express every thought. Use their feedback to tailor your messaging.

 

33:27

Mindset is key

• Take time in a quiet moment to think through your business
• Be strategic - Step back, look at things objectively and form a plan
• Follow through

 

37:37

"A prescription for selling success."

Create a simple template that allows you and/or sales reps to come up with 3 lead generating campaigns.

 

Connect with Virtual Sean:

SalesIntegrity.com

MasterComplexSelling.com - Free 7-day video email course

 

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode #2 - The Customer Avatar

Episode #3 - Free Customer Market Research

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Zoom

 

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