Bulletproof Selling

Many salespeople earn a great living from customers who keep coming back. But for those of us just a building that type of pipeline, how do we achieve it faster? That is the question we post to Curtis Lewsey , author of Appreciation Marketing and founder of AM Cards. He shared with us the same system he advised his client to use to gain more followers on business, and I'm sure they are selling mor...

One of the toughest parts about selling are the assumptions we make. As we have more and more conversations, we tend to carry what we hear from one prospect to another. That works, until it doesn't. To learn how we can stop assuming in sales and better test our assumptions before they cost us revenue, we sat down with Brady Jensen, founder and CEO of Aggregate Insights. He shared a system any sale...

Many salespeople are focused on understanding every aspect of the features and benefits of what they sell. The problem is prospects and customers don't care. They do care about the problems they need solved. To learn how to systemize our discovery in a solution-oriented way, we sat down with Steve Schmidt , CEO of Magnetic. He walked us through a simple system that any salesperson can use to ensur...

Many salespeople are responsible for servicing existing customers while developing new business. It can be tough to juggle this type of role, but with the proper systems, it becomes not only possible but also enjoyable! To learn how it's done, we sat down with Josh Patton , a former Navy aviation ordinance specialist and vice president of sales. He revealed the same strategy he coaches his sales t...

Too many salespeople spend time on accounts that go nowhere, and too many sales leaders struggle to get their salespeople to accurately qualify their deals. Instead of using subjective data to build our piplelines, we can remove hope from systemizing how we qualify deals – even before we've called on them. To learn how to master the art of qualification, we sat down with Paul Butterfield , founder...

Success isn't a one-person show in sales. We each have a team and partners that ensure we have the resources we need to sell, and serve, our customers. Yet many salespeople hope they'll be able to hold the line all by themselves. To learn how we can better partner with the other teams in our own companies or even with partners outside our chain of command, we sat down with Shawn Breaux , a sales m...

The more honest we are, the better our conversations tend to be – but to many salespeople leave their transparency to chance. In this action-packed episode, we sat down with an expert in sales transparency, Shane Wingo , VP of sales in employee benefits with BKS Partners. He shared the exact process he uses to ensure everyone in a sales conversation is transparent with each other, and how to use t...

If you'd like to be the salesperson that your prospects can't wait to hear from, it means you need to be more than an order taker or even an order maker. You'll have to be the one with solutions they can't get anywhere else and deliver an experience that differentiates you from your competition. Too many salespeople wait around, hoping they'll reach this level of performance – but the best salespe...

When we meet a prospect who 'gets' us, what we sell, and immediately see how it could benefit them, sales happen on their own. Unfortunately, most of the folks we're selling to are inundated with offers and don't have the time to figure out how your unique product or service can help them. That's where validating your value becomes critical, and to learn how to build it into every sales conversati...

Too many salespeople wait until they're in a meeting or in a conversation before they start performing, and it results in delayed sales and prospect attrition. The best salespeople, however, put the same amount of prep into their meetings as they do their research and outreach. To learn how we can turn prospect meetings into a high-performance process, we sat down with Gabe Lullo , CEO of Alleyoop...

Salespeople's biggest struggle isn't caring about what they sell, it's convincing prospects why THEY should care. There's a group of salespeople who are expert at selling ideas before anything tangible appears – and you've seen their work. To learn how to apply this expertise to our own sales process, we sat down with Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoit Nadeau, professional writers and small business coa...

Too many salespeople and sales teams think they're operating on their own in their companies, with little support or understanding from marketing, operations, and delivery. This leads to high customer turnover and fewer referrals as customers don't feel like they're being valued by a cohesive team. To learn how we can get every department singing from the same sheet of music, we sat down with Luis...

We all know that the more prospects we're pursuing, the more potential revenue we have, but how do we manage great outreach and awesome conversations at scale? To learn the secret of relentless selling at scale, we sat down with Nicole Williams, a former intelligence analyst with the US Army, and now the regional vice president of operations and sales for the QPS employment group. She showed us ho...

If you're spending time driving deals only to get stuck in negotiations, you're going to love this week's episode of Bulletproof Selling! We delve into the art of deal-making, exploring strategic approaches that elevate sales professionals to new heights. To learn how the very best negotiate better deals, we sat down with Mark Raffan, CEO of Negotiations Ninja. Raffan shared his expertise, unveili...

Most salespeople wouldn't consider 'purpose' as one of their most powerful selling tools, but in study after study, those with purpose out-performed those without. To learn how we can systemize more purpose into our conversations, we sat down with Lisa McLeod , founder of McLeod & More, Inc., and author of the bestselling Selling With Noble Purpose. She showed us the power of operating in alignmen...

Money is one of toughest subjects in any relationship, and it's often the one that stalls or destroys even the best sale. Top-performing salespeople don't fight with prospects to justify their prices – instead, they work with prospects to develop the right budget to solve their problems. To learn how we can build this process into every one of our conversations, we sat down with Tyler Watkins , se...

Developing a trusting relationship is a key to success in sales, but how do we ensure we have a pipeline full of folks who already know, like and trust us? To find the answer, we sat down with Michael Lange , the VP of Sales at Ferrara Logistics Services and former Navy Seabee. He showed us how to systemize and scale building and leveraging a personal network for consistent business success. Wheth...

If you're in an industry where buyers are shopping you on price, you're not alone. Even if what you sell is like what a buyer can get somewhere else, it doesn't mean you should revert to discounts and concessions to make the deal. To learn how to reshape our products and services from a commodity into a collaborative sales process, we sat down with Brian Harvey , southwest sales leader with Marsh...

For many salespeople, the ability to quickly build rapport is something they either have, or don't. Because rapport is one of the most critical elements for establishing trust and driving engagement, every salesperson should be working on ways to increase their ability to build rapport, but there are few processes to do so. Until now. We sat down with Matt Lombardi , CEO of Share, to learn how he...

Salespeople know that selling to an existing customer is easier than selling to a new one, but few take the time to ensure every customer's sales journey maximizes future sales. To learn how we can systemize recurring revenue, we sat down with Troy Small, a former Marine Corps Drill Instructor and current VP of Sales at Skyway Acquisition. He showed us how the buying journey can be constructed to...

Senior salespeople often seem like they only deal with the best prospects: The folks who are most responsive, engaged, and qualified. What many don't realize is that the same book of business can be consciously created by salespeople of any experience level, if they know what they are looking for. To help us create a way to choose our best prospects, we sat down with Joel Stevenson , CEO of Yeswar...

Whether you're drowning in new leads or scraping the barrel for business, there's one process you can't ignore if you want to increase sales: how you qualify, and disqualify, your prospects. It's an area a lot of salespeople try to 'wing', and their pipeline suffers the consequences. To learn how the best salespeople are qualifying their prospects, we sat down with Ryan Booth , vice president of s...

If you think your sales process is complicated, welcome to the complex sale. You're juggling decision makers, conflicting goals, shifting delivery timelines and budgets. It's almost too much for a salesperson to manage – which is why you're going to love this week's episode. We sat down with Gavin West , vice president of sales and marketing at Smileyscope and former Marine Corps scout sniper. He...

Leads are the fuel that powers our pipelines, but too many salespeople forget to top off the tank. To avoid sales slumps, we sat down with Chet Lovegren , founder and 'Head Sales RX'er' at the Sales Doctor. He showed us exactly how to mine our existing databases, personal network and those of our teammates to ensure we were consistently putting new leads into the pipeline and re-engaging old ones....

We know that if we're not growing as salespeople, we will be left behind. But how do we identify and prioritize the improvements we need to make, and then create an action plan to ensure those changes are made? To learn the answer, we sat down with Alan Versteeg , the CEO of Growth Matters. He showed us a simple system any salesperson can use to regain control of their own success on the battlefie...