Categories: Podcasts
“Some people want it to happen, some people wish it to happen, others make it happen.” - Michael Jordan
You’ve likely got goals for yourself next year; to hit consistent quotas, gain higher commissions, speed up your close rates, etc. What’s your plan to make it happen for yourself? Top performers are constantly honing their craft, even if it’s just fifteen minutes a day — recapping what worked well in previous deals (or what didn’t), seeking advice from their team, or listening to tips from those with years of sales experience. Finding daily small ways to improve your skills can make a big difference in where you’ll be sitting this time next year.
The Audible-Ready Podcast was designed to provide salespeople a simple way to continuously sharpen their sales skills and make critical impacts in current deals. Here are the top five most popular podcasts that elite sellers found valuable this year:
1. Approaching Sales Conversations With Empathy
Differentiating yourself from the competition goes beyond what you sell. How you sell can make a big impact in your current opportunities, especially in today’s murky sales environment. Getting your buyer to see your relevance and that you genuinely care about their business and complex issues can set you apart from the competition. In this episode, John Kaplan covers how you can navigate what your buyers are dealing with to mitigate potential stalls and grab their interest.
2. Executing Great Discovery
At Force Management, we estimate that top sellers spend at least half of their time in the discovery process because they don’t want to leave the outcome of their sales conversations to chance. Executing great discovery can help you ensure you’re uncovering big business problems (that lead to big dollars) and avoiding reasons for your deals to stall later on in the sales process. In this episode, Brian Walsh shares personal experiences and tips on the art of great discovery and how you can earn the right to ask the hard questions and move opportunities forward.
3. Negotiation FAQs and Best Practices
Negotiation is a tricky process when you and your account team are dealing with professional buyers, strict budgets, and multiple stakeholders. However, how you approach the negotiation process early on can make a big difference in your ability to validate your price during negotiations and close at a premium. In this episode, Tim Caito discusses key ways managers and reps can navigate the negotiation process to ensure their business and procurement buyers view their solutions as valuable. Tune in to hear how sales reps can influence required capabilities early on, to show their solutions are the best fit for the buyer’s requirements.
4. Improve Your Active Listening Skills
How well do you prepare to listen? We know how important asking great questions is to uncovering business pain. Having great questions will only get you so far if you don’t know how to listen to the answers and only wait for your chance to talk. Top performers build genuine relationships with their prospects and sell larger deals because they have the patience to actively listen and respond based on what they hear. In this episode, Patrick McLoughlin shares ways to actively listen. Tune in to hear three ways to prepare for the answers you’ll get from customers in a way that enables you to dig deeper or pivot decisively. If you’re a manager or AE, this is a great episode to share with your sales team and/or your inside sales reps.
5. Getting into a New Opportunity
2020 has been a murky sales environment and cracking into new accounts has been a top struggle for many sales organizations, across industries. In this episode, John Kaplan shares insights that salespeople can use to make themselves immediately relevant to any cold prospects and open new opportunities because of it. He explains how salespeople can be uncommon in their call preparation and conversations, so they can successfully earn the right to move their prospects into active opportunities. If you’re closing in on a deal with a supportive champion, John also shares tips on how you can leverage the positive close to open up a new opportunity with your champion’s connections.
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