Find My Catalyst Podcast

Host Question - What is an SSI Score? Jody threw us a curveball this week, with his own question.  He has heard Mike and I give each other a hard time about our individual SSI score, and finally asked - what is an SSI score?  This prompted a discussion and a Catalyst Sale Research Project. There's an old saying in business - "Be careful what you measure, because what you measure is what you will g...

Guest - Matt Ostanik - Founder, CEO, FunnelWise Matt Ostanik is our guest on this week's podcast.  Matt is the CEO of FunnelWise. He previously founded and grew Submittal Exchange, a provider of web-based collaboration tools for commercial construction projects. In a five-year period, Matt grew the company from two employees to more than 100 and more than 100,000 users of their software. He sold S...

Listener Question - Proposal Templates This week on the Catalyst Sale podcast we review another listener question. Lynn asks about proposal templates, and if it is common to use templates that are more focused on the vendor's business than the customer.   In her organization, they use a template that focuses on their business and the market, and wonders if this is the right approach.    Unfortunat...

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work John Maxwell famously wrote, "Teamwork makes the dream work".  This is critical to our success as individual sale reps (account executives, account managers, SDRs, BDRs, sales leaders), and to Catalyst Sale as an organization.   This week on the Catalyst Sale podcast we talk about the importance of partnerships in business, and how finding the right business partners...

Guest - Drew D'Agostino - Founder, Crystal Knows This week on the Catalyst Sale podcast Drew D'Agostino, Founder, Crystal Knows joins us to talk about building trust with your customers, prospects, team members by understanding their perspective, tendencies, and personality type.   Crystal Knows is embedded into our sales technology stack at Catalyst Sale.  We discuss how we use this technology to...

Listener Question - Mentoring on the Job This week on the Catalyst Sale podcast we review a listener topic. Spencer asked if we could discuss the importance of having a good mentor as a new rep OR a seasoned rep starting with a new company or in a new industry. It is through mentoring programs and job shadowing programs that organization information can be passed down from person to person, and ge...

Key Performance Indicators - what works, what does not, and where to start This week we have a listener question from Jared in Florida.  Jared is questioning the KPIs that are being measured by the organization and wonders how to determine if you are measuring the right things. We discuss some common errors when creating KPIs, general best practices, and some practical examples.  We also discuss h...

Guest - Dan Tyre from HubSpot We are excited to have Dan Tyre join us on this week's episode of the Catalyst Sale Podcast.  The conversation went so well, we ended up recording our longest podcast to date.  Let us know how you like this format, and who you would like us to invite to join us on the podcast. Dan  is a director at HubSpot, entrepreneur multiple times over & inbound expert.  We cover...

Plateau Breakthrough Practice Area Catalyst Sale has multiple services we deliver to the marketplace.  This is the second in a series of podcasts where we share our capabilities.  In this episode, we discuss Breaking through Revenue Plateaus , and our approach to identifying gaps and risk from the perspective of People, Technology, and Process. CEOs, CFOs, COOs, Board members, Advisors, Investors,...

Product Market Fit Practice Area Catalyst Sale has multiple services we deliver to the marketplace.  This is the first in a series of podcasts where we share our capabilities.  In this episode we discuss Product Market Fit, what we mean by breaking things, and how we have helped founders reduce risk by testing assumptions. Founders/CoFounders, entrepreneurs are optimistic when it comes to product ...

Objections are common in the sales process. A number of sales training companies offer best practices in handling objections and ways to avoid objections.  Sometimes it is important to raise the objection.   Common objections include price, influence, time, budget, competitive capabilities.  Sometimes the objection is less common.  Even worse, the objection might be silent.   Mike & I share our ap...

Listener Question - What do you mean by "Sales is a Thinking Process?" It's more than just our tagline, it's a guiding concept of ours.  We have not found a substitute for thinking, and hopefully, we never do.   On this week's episode of the Catalyst Sale Podcast, we answer Val's question about sales as a thinking process.  We discuss some common misperceptions, challenges, and our approach at Cat...

Dan Peter joins us on this week's Catalyst Sale Podcast.  Dan is a Salesforce MVP, and Lead Applications Engineer at Kenandy.  Dan started his Salesforce development career in 2009, and is an active leader in the Salesforce community.  Connect with @DanielJPeter on twitter, or look for him at the next Bay Area Salesforce Developer Meetup. We discuss a number of topics including Ohana at Salesforce...

Listener Question - Should you force the demo? Mike from New Jersey asks about using demos as a key metric in measuring the sales team success.   Be careful what you ask for.  When managing teams, you tend to get what you measure.   If you and your team are compensated based on the number of demos that your team delivers, this may be a good metric.   If your focus is on revenue, this may not be th...

Where do you start when planning an effective Sales Training Event or Global Sales Meeting. At Catalyst Sale, we start with the following questions. What is the current state? What is the desired state? What are your gaps? How will you execute? How will you follow-up and hold the team accountable? Who are the experts in your organization that you can lean on? There are no Silver Bullets, but there...

Listener Question - Customer Churn    Churn is inevitable.  It should be considered in your business planning, as it is something most organizations experience on a monthly basis.   What if you are a rep though, and something happens beyond your control?   How do you get things back on track?   What happens if you need to take one step backward in order to move things forward? Let's say you are an...

In this weeks' episode of the Catalyst Sale Podcast we talk about pushing the reset button if necessary. (hopefully this is not the case)  We also talk about building on success, creating your foundation for the future, and execution. Sales planning & execution, territory planning, goal setting, and adjusting like a champion all are discussed.   You can find us via LinkedIn, Twitter, & The Catalys...

Why a culture of transparency is good, and how you can identify the risk of over-sharing. Leadership, many times requires creating a buffer, helping to shield your team from information that may reduce focus. At the same time, your team can reach new levels in both creativity and impact if they have all of the details. The importance of transparency is recognized by both new leaders, and those who...

The Catalyst Sale Account Plan - Strategic Account Plan Template At Catalyst Sale we look at the account plan as the roadmap of where we have been, and where we expect to go with an account.  The document is critical to effective strategic sales, and account management.  This plan fits into our qualification stage of our sales process, and will be utilized through proposal , confirmation , and bey...

Letting a Customer Go.  When is it time to move on? Bob Dylan famously sung "The times they are a-changin'".  Whether in business or in life, the relationships you are engaged with are in a constant state of change.  New information is gathered, perspectives change, objectives change. Many times this change is good for both parties.  However there are times when change requires additional action....

Sales Enablement - The Swiss Army Knife of your Sales Organization - Catalyst Sale Podcast Sales Enablement takes on a different meaning depending on who is involved in the conversation, and who is driving the mission.  Today, there are a number of sales enablement technologies that have entered the marketplace.   Sales enablement goes well beyond tools and technology.  It includes process, it inc...

Working With and Identifying Channel Partners - Catalyst Sale Podcast Partners can accelerate growth in your startup.  They can also cannibalize your business if you choose the wrong one. When you evaluate your partner strategy, it is critical that you identify your primary objectives.   Are you focused on growth in new markets?  Do you have enough margin in your business to properly compensate a...

The Call Plan - Catalyst Sale Podcast How many times have your wrapped up a conversation with a client or prospect, and thought 'crap, I missed that'? Call planning is a foundational skill.  Ben Franklin said, "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!"  Planning is a crucial skill in both sales and life.  Yet, many rush this step or skip over the basics because they just want to talk to the...

The Vend Zone - Catalyst Sale Podcast We have all experienced it at one time or another.  You are looking for more out of a relationship than the other party has in their mind.  The dreaded friend zone.  Sales is a skill/capability that requires the ability to build relationships over time.  Relationships can evolve, they can also get stuck.  As a sales professional you try to avoid being caught i...

Agile Sales - Catalyst Sale Podcast Is sales agile?  Mike and Mike tackle this question of sales in the context of agile methodologies.  We also discuss how this development approach applies within the Catalyst Sale Process.  Successful sales professionals are agile by design.  Whether thinking about how we work with customers or how we work with our team, critical thinking and iteration are core...