143 In Sales, Building Relationships Is Imperative (w/ Andy Paul)
Andy Paul has been in B2B sales for over 40 years. He’s sold everything from computers to SMBs, to complex communications systems to the world’s largest enterprises. He’s been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in new business, and now he teaches ambitious salespeople, sales teams, and companies how to grow their revenue.
“The bottomline is that sales has always been a very human thing. And if you try to automate everything and lose that personal touch in your sales process, then you’re going to lose out.”
Andy Paul has been in B2B sales for over 40 years. He’s sold everything from computers to SMBs, to complex communications systems to the world’s largest enterprises. He’s been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in new business, and now he teaches ambitious salespeople, sales teams, and companies how to grow their revenue.
In this episode, we talk about:
How to build relationships in business and in sales
Factors that influence a consumer’s buying decision
New ways of ‘re-humanizing’ things
Training people to be more personal with their sales approach
Setting intentions and value propositions before meeting with clients
To learn more, listen to the full episode!
Building Relationships Is Imperative
There’s a developing mythology that sales has fundamentally changed, and that your buyers don’t have time for you, that everything has to be done fast at a superficial level, and that’s just not true.
Sales is still a human business. It’s you connecting with another person at some level. We may not be doing it face to face like we used to, but it’s the same imperative.
A Consumer’s Buying Pattern
Buyers are still making emotional, intuitive decisions to buy from you. People make emotional decisions and then justify them with logic. That hasn’t changed. The fact that people can access more information nowadays makes the task of building relationships with consumers even more important, to help them make sense of all the information they have gathered.
The bottomline is that sales has always been a very human thing. And if you try to automate everything and lose that personal touch in your sales process, then you’re going to lose out.
Sales is a Collaborative Work
This idea of work being more collaborative is certainly true in sales. You’re not really selling these days, it’s more about managing collaborations. Any work that you do within a corporation is team-based, and so what you really need to focus on is how to teach people how to build relationships.
Want more? Listen to the FULL episode below:
142 Be Persistent, Not Annoying (with Shawn Finder)
Shawn Finder is the CEO of AutoKlose, a new revolutionary sales automation platform that is used by 3000+ sales professionals around the world. He is also the author of The B2B Sales Handbook and is among the Top 25 Sales Engagement Influencer.
“If somebody says ‘no’, it doesn’t mean ‘no’ forever. You just have to continue to be persistent - not annoying.”
Shawn Finder is the CEO of AutoKlose, a new revolutionary sales automation platform that is used by 3000+ sales professionals around the world. He is also the author of The B2B Sales Handbook and is among the Top 25 Sales Engagement Influencer.
In this episode, we talk about:
What makes a good salesperson
How to turn no’s into yeses
Pre-conceived notions about sales that hold people back
Email vs. Cold-Calling
AutoKlose, Sales engagement platform and B2B data all-in-one
To learn more, listen to the full episode!
Shawn’s Hiring Criteria
Anyone who is very competitive is good at sales because you either hate to lose or you love to win.
So when I look at sales people now, I look for people who have actually competed in some form of sport previously.
Turning No’s Into Yeses
Everyone has a problem, and so if you’re prospecting and your prospect is still unsure whether they’ll avail your product or service, you have to go and find out what that problem is. And when you do hit that problem, that ‘no’ will eventually become a ‘yes’.
Persistence is Key
If somebody says ‘no’, it doesn’t mean ‘no’ forever. You just have to continue to be persistent - not annoying - and try to convert those no’s to yeses through your conversations. That’s how you close a sale.
Want more? Listen to the FULL episode below: