Sales Best Practices from the Best: Experts and Influencers You’d Want to Know | Series 1

Our team at Convin learned a ton of fresh sales best practices from our in-house podcast-Sales Gambit. 

And we didn’t want to waste a moment in sharing the knowledge with you. 

Understanding the time crunch you face with indefinite calls, follow-ups, and target chasing activities, it’s challenging to make time for sales podcasts. 

So, here’s a compilation of the influencers and their valuable advice for today’s sales professionals. You can choose the topics that interest you and decide if you wish to watch them. To make it easier, we have added one video snippet from each episode to help you filter the choice of podcast further. 

So, without further ado, let’s get started with our first influencer. 

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1. Our virtual selling expert: Kim Orlesky, CEO of KO Advantage Group and Co-founder and CEO of Sales Unicorn

‍“ Invest in the growing demographic, not the dying demographic. ” - Kim Orlesky

From starting her sales career in Xerox, she graduated to her first virtual selling experience in American Express and learned the basic nuances of remote selling. This was when Skype was just picking pace, and remote working technology was a new buzzword. And today, she heads her own sales training company that helps global organizations to take advantage of virtual selling and grow beyond geographical boundaries.

Her interaction with Ashish was an eye-opener about the sales best practices of virtual selling and how video plays a critical role in remote sales. Her tips on how first interactions with buyers need to be virtual and not in-person. The idea of pushing 20-minutes meetings, and not any longer, is another catchy sales tip. If you want to ace your remote selling journey, you shouldn’t miss the episode on How To Use Videos to Ace Virtual Selling in 2022?

Kim’s Sales Book Recommendation:

• To sell is humans by Daniel H. Pink
• Multipliers by Liz Wiseman and Greg Mckeown
• Sell More Faster by Kim Orlesky

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2. Spilling the secret of intelligent discovery calls: Keenan Yospeh, the Mid Market Account Executive at Lob

‍“1-2 minutes is a sweet spot for an ice breaker, but make it sound genuine and well-researched.” - Keenan Yospeh 

A could-be dentist turned sales professional, Keenan is a perfect example of selling as an innate talent. After dropping out of Dental college, Keenan decided to join a few jobs like car dealers, etc., and found a common thread–his interest in sales. Today, he not only has extensive exposure to working with different sales industries but also aspires to become the #1 salesperson in the world.

On Sales Gambit, Keenan explained another sales best practice–how to pull off a smart discovery call without losing the prospect’s interest. He keenly talks about having a clear meeting agenda and how to structure the discovery session to maximize the call duration. The one sales tip we adore is how he explains valuing the prospect's time and offering value during the meeting–get specific smartly and narrow down to the exact need and product requirement.

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3. The Outbound Sales Genius: Tom Slocum, Co-founder, CRO at Outbound SOS, Founder at RevLeague, and Fill the Funnel podcast host

‍“I get them on sales meetings on the 3rd day because SDRs gotta fail fast and fail hard.” - Tom Slocum

Tom’s a seasoned sales representative with over 14 years of experience in sales. As part of their initiative in Outbound SOS, He works closely with his partner to help sales teams scale sustainably while consistently hitting quota. Tom aspires to bring down the 6-8 months ramp-up period to 8-weeks and start executing sales pipelines ASAP.

Tom touches on several key best practices that need immediate attention in ramping up new SDRs. He shares one mantra about how to get the SDRs on call on the 3rd day of training. The faster they go in the market, the more their companies will start learning the market and reap the benefits of inbound marketing activities. He openly discusses the problem behind why companies are not ready to introduce new reps early on in the sales process. He touches upon the trust, control, and lack of a formal onboarding process. 

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4. Multi-channel sales strategy expert: Leslie Venetz, VP of Sales at Digital Reach Online solutions and the Founder of Sales team builder

‍ “People buy for emotional reasons but later justify it with logic. It’s an emotion driving the initial need, the desire.” -  Leslie Venetz

A successful marketing graduate, Leslie dreamt of working as an event marketing or marketing coordinator but soon realized those jobs wouldn’t pay for her lifestyle in Chicago–and thus, sales happened. Sales compensation was attractive and made sense to Leslie because she earned more on working harder, which kept her motivated and driven. She ensured using her innate sales qualities, like asking questions, staying curious, and helping people. It's been 15 years of sales and going strong…

In her conversation with Ashish, Leslie points out the core difference between SMB sales and enterprise sales. Her concern is reaching enterprise buyers and handling more than 5 buyers at a time. And yes, she defines the sales best practices that work at the enterprise. Leslie also points out the importance of cold call and how it hasn’t died yet. If you face challenges in creating a mark for yourself, she talks through a few great examples of building brand recognition and credibility. You'll also get a glimpse of how to use the power of events. 

PS: Don’t miss her added sales advice on how to talk to a buyer in NYC compared to a buyer located in Alabama. Listen to the entire podcast.

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5. Breaking all outbound sales barriers: Thibaut Souyris, CEO and Founder of SalesLabs and The Selling Advantage Community, and Co-host of the B2B Sales Podcast

"The more channels you use, the more surface you have to start conversations" - Thibaut Souyris

Thibaut’s is an interesting journey. He aspired to get a private pilot license and needed funding. He was turned down any sponsorship by his parents and grandparents; however, his grandparents advised him to score a job in the airline industry to gain exposure to the industry, where he started selling airline cleaning services. And now, he’s built a successful sales career by deciding to stop making other people rich and start his entrepreneurial journey of helping other people with sales. He majorly focuses on B2B tech sales. 

He’ll help organize your thoughts on balancing between a sales-led and a product-led model and which one an early-stage startup should adapt. As per his experience, social-selling is another selling activity that sellers must invest time into. He presses on the omnichannel approach to reach your audience–find out where your audience hangs out. 

PS: Watch out for the cool LinkedIn magnet strategy in the podcast.

6. Mentor to early-stage sales start-ups: Donald Kelly, founder and Chief Evangelist at The Sales Evangelist, VP of Sales and Marketing at BenfoComplete, and a podcast host.

‍“ If you pose as the low-cost provider in the market, you tend to inherit more problems. This is because low-cost customers tend to want all the benefits that high-paying customers receive.” - Donald Kelly

Donald’s journey started in Jamaica, and his sales journey took shape in United Stated. Thanks to the encouragement he received from friends in college, and owing to his outgoing personality, he consciously chose a professional career in sales. He dabbled between B2B and B2C sales and finally landed in the software sales industry. Since then, he’s been a top-performing seller in the software sales industry.

All sales mistakes made by start-ups are addressed tactfully with a detailed understanding of each situation. As a sales best practice, he advises companies to focus on product-market fit rather than doubling down initially. Secondly, he shows concern about how companies are not spending enough time testing sales practices and creating a playbook out of the successful activities. Donald offers some incredible tips on outsourcing sales and what makes it a success. 

Donald’s Sales Book Recommendation:

• Sell Without Selling Out: A Guide to Success on Your Own Terms by Andy Paul
• The Three Value Conversations: How to Create, Elevate, and Capture Customer Value at Every Stage of the Long-Lead Sale by Erik Peterson
• The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal by David Hoffeld.
• Don't forget to check out Donald’s brand new book- Sell It Like a Mango: A New Seller's Guide to Closing More Deals. He’ll share his Jamaican sales and business experience. 

7. Sales-enablement secrets for the new era: Celine Grey, Director of Revenue Intelligence at Oyster

‍“Not to be data-led is a mistake. Everything should be data-led.” - Celine Grey

Celine’s sales journey is another exciting story that we adore. Her journey started at a naive 14 years of age. Her mother was a florist, and she quickly grasped that flowers were not a need that someone necessarily would buy. She learned about selling intentions and qualifications. Why and how does someone purchase a flower. She also started as a rep with IT and Tech companies and grew into a sales leader. Both Ashish and Celine agree that sales is a subject that should be taught in college as a full-time course and not an optional subject.Currently, her company is filling the talent gap shortage globally.

Celine takes us on a unique journey of sales best practices by sharing her sales enablement experience in the remote landscape. She talks about extracting better performance from sellers in the distributed working situation. She highlights a significant issue in remote working, i.e., observational management. Her biggest and most practical suggestion for managing remote and distributed work is to support asynchronous work and lead with data–have objectives, be granular, and relevant. And if you are someone who’s planning to scale the Sales Enablement program at your company, then Celine’s podcast is a must-watch. 

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8. The social selling magician: Carson Heady, Director of health solutions at Microsoft, an 8-time CEO award winner, the best-selling author of the “Birth of a salesman” series, and a podcast host himself. 

“You can’t water your garden once; you need to do it consistently. Be consistent with your social selling activities too. ” - Carson Heady

Carson works with an optimistic and stable attitude. He has over 300,000 followers across platforms, which speaks for the influence he possesses. But what many people don’t know is that Carson’s sales journey started by accident. He expected to be in the service industry but landed in sales– now heading the health solutions at Microsoft and a sales book bestseller author. He believes in being a student and learning sales best practices as he progresses. 

For Carson, social selling is unlocking all the channels where you can build new relations and nurture them. In his journey with AT&T, Carson explored LinkedIn and figured out ways to stay on top of his audience. Before choosing a platform, Carson suggests researching the audience as a best practice. Where is my audience? What’ll tick them? What value do they want? What are their pain points? He mentions the importance of relationship building and personalization because your network is your net worth. And there are plenty of tools to support your social selling activities. Sellers just need to go out there and make mistakes and learn. Today, your contacts may not be interested in buying from you, but investing in social selling ensures you are on top of mind when the need arises. 

PS: Towards the end of his Podcast, you must listen to his narration of why and how he decided to write a sales novel- Birth of a Salesman.

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9. Sales Negotiation best practice expert: Sean Sheppard, CEO of the Americas at U.plus and Co-founder of GrowthX and GrowthX Academy.

‍“This life–personal or professional–is relational, so don’t behave transactionally ever. Don’t comprise on integrity.” - Sean Sheppard

Sean’s passionate about technology and the promises it brings for the future. (Don’t miss his amusing statement on how he’s not a technologist.)Starting from translating, Sean has successfully transitioned to sales and scaled dozens of early-stage organizations across various products and markets. He also got named the #2 Online Sales Influencer at the Huffington Post. 

Sean takes an unconventional approach to negotiation and talks about it from a border perspective–give value in exchange for value. He advises sellers to avoid compromising on integrity and investing in relationships. The one muscle sellers must build, according to Sean, is the empathy muscle. Neither have a transactional approach nor let the prospect take a transactional process in negotiation. Every negotiation has to be a mutually beneficial outcome for both parties. At the same time, he emphasizes not just acquiring the customer but also keeping them and growing with them. 

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10. Host and Brains Behind The Sales Gambit: Ashish Santhalia, CEO of Convin.ai and your podcast host on Sales Gambit.

You must be wondering what made us add Ashish here to the list of influencers? That’s a valid question, but we didn’t want to miss the chance to introduce our podcast host and share his story. 😉 We’re sure many of you have been curious and eagerly waiting to get your hands on his career journey.
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Ashish is an engineering graduate from one of India’s premier and renowned institutes–IIT-Delhi. He’s an experienced co-founder with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry for his startup and fast-growing B2B SaaS company. He’s skilled in product management and currently engrossed in learning sales to help global sellers sell better. He’s passionate and detailed-oriented individual who leads by data. While he doesn’t aim for the false perfection theory, his approach stresses being comprehensive and customer-oriented. He’s one of the most articulate and insightful sales professionals you’ll encounter in your sales career. 

Well, that’s all for today. 

We will be releasing yet another series of outstanding sales influencers and their sales best practices. Until then, stay tuned and watch out for excellent sales tips and advice on Sales Gambit. Signing off!!

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