Open Source Selling -- A Thoughtful Exchange of Ideas in the Art and Science of B2B Selling

On this week’s episode of Open Source Selling, I sit down with Matt Petrovick, Enterprise Sales Leader at GitLab. In this first of four segments, Matt shares how his education in finance helped give him an initial edge when entering B2B Sales. When he was first hired at IBM over a decade ago he was told that anyone can be taught products and services, but knowing how to sell financially is much ha...

In case you missed it, or you just enjoy an uninterrupted podcast, here is the complete and uninterrupted conversation I had with Marc this week. We discussed many topics including: optimizing your time to revenue, surrounding yourself with the best and brightest people to become a top performer, recognizing the importance of pipeline generation, and to keep top of mind that you are selling the so...

On the final segment this week of Open Source Selling and my conversation with Marc, he answers the question of 'what he would tell his younger self if he were just starting out in the business", by comparing the "Hillary Step"--what some climbers of Mt. Everest called one of the trickiest parts of the climb and the last obstacle before the summit--to a sellers first 18 months on a job and how to...

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Marc and I continue our conversation and discuss sales methodologies, the art and science of selling, taking care of your customers, learning to see failure as key to your growth, and what it takes to become a top performer! Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I continue my conversation with Marc and we discuss how everything we do as sellers around account planning and strategy should be viewed through the lens of how it optimizes our time to revenue. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

On this week's episode of Open Source Selling, I sit down with Marc Wittenberg, who has been successful in B2B Sales for 30 years. In this first of four segments, Marc shares what he has done throughout his career that has made him so successful: building trust and a strong reputation, knowing himself as a seller, playing offense by having a great strategy, surrounding himself with great people--w...

For those who would rather listen to Faisal without daily segments and Luke's commentary, enjoy the unabridged and uninterrupted sales discussion!  

In this final segment in my conversation with Faisal this week, we discuss planning for long-term success, the challenger sale, and what it takes to become a top performer. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Faisal and I discuss the art and science of selling and becoming a problem solver. He draws on his unique experience and shares that to be successful we need to stop selling and start problem solving. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

Welcome to this week's episode of Open Source Selling! In this first of three segments with Faisal Aziz, we discuss value of deep business relationships, what makes a good champion, and the importance of being audible ready. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

Many thanks again to Bob Carlstrom, MBA for joining me on this week's episode of Open Source Selling. For those of you that would rather take in the podcast without commentary or daily segments, this is our conversation in its entirety. We discuss goals and focus, what it takes to be a top performing sales rep, cultivating accounts, account management, customer retention, the art and science of se...

On the final segment this week of Open Source Selling, Bob and I discuss his views on the art and science of selling, what it takes to become a top performing rep, and some of the best sales training he has taken. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Bob and I continue our discussion about account management and explore the importance of cultivating accounts. We also talk about team selling and delegation, and Bob talks about his "goal issues"...which ends up being a really good thing! Join me, as we ask, listen and learn together!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Bob and I continue our conversation and discuss the link between goals and focus, as well as something he calls value confusion which often leads to unnecessarily dropping price, leaving money on the table, and reducing the value you bring and your solution offers to the client. Listen to the full episode to learn how to avoid value confusion, something w...

During this segment of #OpenSourceSelling, I continue my conversation with @bobcarlstrom as we discuss #customerretention -- the gift that has the potential to keep on giving. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

On this week's episode of #OpenSourceSelling, I talk with @BobCarlstrom. Bob successfully transitioned from personal trainer to #B2BSeller more than a decade ago. In this segment, Bob shares the unconventional path he took into #B2BSales and compares it to how many #salescycles progress: There wasn't a direct path. There were starts and stops, but he had a goal, kept his focus, and reminded himsel...

So many of us look for ways to shorten the sales cycle; no big deal, right?! It depends. There is nothing wrong with looking for ways to streamline a process. However, when we look for #shortcuts we too often end up cutting corners. But we each know, deep down in, there are #noshortcuts and cutting corners will eventually slow down the process and make everything more messy! On today's episode of...

Have you ever considered quitting or changing careers because you didn't think #selling was right for you? I imagine all of us have felt that way before when going through a #slump. On today's episode of #OpenSourceSelling, @SamaalRoberson opens up and talks about how #selfdoubt can creep into our minds and prevent us from becoming a #topperformer. He recalls a few #pivotpoints from his career and...

On today's episode, I continue my conversation with Samaal as we discuss one of the most important aspects of selling: account planning. This might be where the preverbal rubber meats the road and what might be the biggest chasm between a good rep on the account team and a top performer. Samaal shares both successes and failures and what he learned from his experiences. He discusses the effects of...

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I speak with selling veteran Samaal Roberson who has been in B2B Sales for 40 years. In this first of four segments, we discuss how to balance the importance of focusing on the customer while at the same time driving results for your company and what to do when those seem to be at odds. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! On this final segment of my conversation with Trina Thomas, I ask her the age old question about selling: is it more of an art or science and why. She addresses this and shares her opinion on what it takes to become a top performer. Her final piece of advice for sellers at the end is worth listening to as well. Join me as we ask, listen, and learn together!

Do you think of yourself as a true professional? What skills and abilities helped you get into sales? Have you continued to improve those, like adding wood to a fire, or have you let the flame dwindle? On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Trina and I continue our conversation by discussing how there is a direct correlation between how much time you spend improving your skills and the increas...

What is it about prospecting that kills the mood in any sales meeting?! It's not like people who get into sales don't know that top of mind for sales leadership is prospecting, prospecting, prospecting, oh yeah, and pipeline pipeline pipeline...maybe they are hoping something has changed or no one will notice their pipeline deplete if they don't prospect! At any rate, on Today's episode of Open So...

This episode is the first in a series of five. Each day I will release a new segment that covers a different sales topic from my conversation with Trina. During this introductory episode, we get to know Trina Thomas, Sr. Account Executive at DocuSign. Trina has been in B2B Sales for almost 20 years and for almost half of that time she has been with DocuSign. She hadn't planned on getting into sale...

In this episode of Open Source Selling (#2 of 5 this week), Trina and I continue our conversation and discuss what it means to hold the customer accountable and the consequences of not doing so. We also discuss how to get alignment and why it is important to do so as early as possible in the sales cycle. Trina shares experiences she has had over the years, lessons learned the hard way, and how she...