Everybody who's ever sold against a quota can relate.

The end of the month, quarter, or year involves a mad dash to the finish line. Of course, projects need to be completed, and beans need to be counted. These guideposts are important. What gets out of hand is when the deal's timing becomes more important than the deal's value.

Tension is my term for the group of emotions that has tone present in every sales process. It’s pretty simple. No tension means no emotion, which means no sale.

In your prospect’s eyes, your marketplace is a sea of sameness. You’re not the only that provides a solution to the problem they’re stuck on. There are very few companies that have truly groundbreaking technology, and a lot of your competitors’ products look pretty similar to yours.

People are reluctant to admit this, but we still don't completely appreciate the total effects of the last few years.

The pandemic caused fear, isolation, and a complete rejiggering of the way we work. We're only now beginning to experience the hangover of all the financial strings that were pulled to keep things together. Our collective psyche has been rocked (to say the least).

As a result, there's been a reckoning of priorities. Everyone on the planet has been reminded of what's really important to them, and many of us realized that our preferences were a little (or a lot) out of whack.

Today, I’ve got the incomparable Samantha McKenna on the show with me to talk about personalization with your outreach. Sam calls it Show Me You Know Me.

I know something you don’t know, and you’d probably be better off if you knew it too.

"That can't be it. You must be doing it wrong."

That's the inner monologue of the overwhelming majority of salespeople out there.

Every salesperson starts out having some kind of intuitive notion of what they need to do in order to sell their best. Then they promptly doubt it.

Think about it. Nobody ever reads your email, returns your call, or accepts your connection request unless they think there is value that you can provide them. Your job when you’re prospecting, especially early on in the campaign, is not to make a sales or even book a meeting. Your job is to build credibility with your buyer.

How do you build that credibility? Present them with insights that will help them. Not just data, but intelligence around that data. You’re trying to demonstrate that you bring something powerful to the table- you.

First things first, these are the table stakes for professional prospecting. They often get taken for granted, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that you need to be reminded of them. You can’t afford to miss any of these if you expect your best results.

I don’t know of a top-performing salesperson who doesn’t have an abundance of belief; in themselves, their solution, or their company.

On the other hand, there are thousands of sales reps out there who are in dire need of it. I will say unequivocally that it’s the biggest single obstacle in the way of anybody who thinks they can perform better.

On today’s episode, I welcome the one and only King of Sales, Jeffrey Gitomer.

His is the voice I consistently hear in my head when I think about salespeople and their belief systems, and I’m thrilled to bring that voice to you today.

Your belief in yourself is what drives you when the going gets tough. It’s a rudder in turbulent waters. If you don’t have a clear understanding of why you want to help the people you’re helping with the solution you have, then you have to ask yourself if you’re in the right place.

It’s officially September, which means it’s unofficially the end of one of the strangest business summer seasons I can remember. While it certainly feels like a recession in many ways, several economic markers would allow one to disagree. 

For all of the sentiment out there about companies being a lot more tight-fisted with their cash (I see a lot of it), most of the companies I’ve spoken with have been doing quite well.

“Sales management is the fine art of balancing encouraging the heart and kicking the ass.” -Donnie Williams

Right now there’s a sales manager assuming that their comp plan is doing their job for them. They’re failing.

I know you want to be easy to work for. I know you don’t want to be a micromanager, but that isn’t a permission slip for being uninvolved.

There are so many misconceptions about qualifying your opportunities. I get that if you chase every potential lead, you’re wasting a lot of time. You need to protect your time and reserve it for the most valuable activities, but the way you make sales is by having sales conversations. You're probably talking yourself out of a lot of those opportunities.

The more time you can speak to potential customers, the better you will be in tune with your marketplace. That expertise will absolutely translate into more sales. 

Here’s where I think most reps go wrong.

Clients complain to me all the time about how their team isn’t winning enough new business. They’re hitting their numbers, they just aren’t winning enough new accounts.

I ask what the comp plan looks like…

“Well…”

When I get these complaints, I immediately stand up for the sellers. They’re not lazy, and they’re not subordinate. When it comes to what you want them to do and what you’re actually paying them to do, which path do you expect they’re going to choose?

Sales leaders are not providing direction or doing enough to simplify the processes. In short, they’re not creating a conducive selling environment.

There's nothing wrong with being inspired by someone else's frameworks, but let me tell you what happens when you take them too literally.

Playbooks, scripts, and call plans are all valuable. They still need relevant context.

There need to be people in your organization who are setting examples for how to use these tools effectively, and preferably in more than one way. Sales reps, especially those with less experience, need to see these plans in action in such a way that they can see themselves using them.