High Tech Freedom Sales Podcast

Have you lost your sales job during one of the many layoffs? Are you wanting to get ahead of the next change?   If you plan to speak with a recruiter, listen to this episode for some best practices with Sally Williams.   Sally Williams has been a Senior Recruiter with Boly:Welch for 18 years. As she works with companies candidates, she has seen many examples of where candidates have missed golden...

What to do during a recession? As a sales professional selling during a downturn, you might have to navigate some challenges. If you have not sold during a full out major downturn or recession, you may be feeling anxious, nervous, or uncertain.   In every recession, there are winning  and losing businesses. There are businesses that are able to take advantage of a downturn. You may have to pivot y...

Samantha did volunteer work at an orphanage in Ghana for a few months in 2013 which led her to her first sales related job at a non-profit at UJA-Federation of New York, a 150M fundraising campaign that serves the New York community. She attributes her experience in fundraising (cold calling non stop to get donations, and putting on fundraising events) to giving her a leg up when moving to the for...

Just received your quota and you are not happy? You have two options: Spend hours talking with peers and complaining to your manager.  Develop an adjusted plan and then communicate the plan to your manager This episode covers some reasons why developing a plan and communicating the plan to your manager can help elevate your career.    Enter our monthly drawing for an insulated High Tech Freedom tu...

Rene Grahales has had a very successful career leading very large sales teams and ultimately a Billion dollar sales organization. He moved up the sales ranks at Iron Mountain and ran multiple N American teams. He ended up taking on a role running sales at Staples during a time of great turmoil - Failed merger with Office Depot, horrible morale, and sales dropping. Over 4 years, Rene and team turne...

Have you ever been or currently stuck in a sales rut?   Do you feel like you are going through the motions, coming up a little short of plan or forecast?   Sales is a tough profession because if you are out there hustling and working it every day, you are going to face a large percentage of rejection and disappointment. That’s a big part of your day!   This is a short conversation about how to get...

Nick plays a large role in selling the company and its capabilities as the technical expert in many opportunities (or at least when he was primarily a Sales Engineer). However, now leading a team of 80+ across the US and internationally, he is responsible for supporting all business units beyond technical but nearly anything pre-sales related. Nick's goal in everything he does is to make a positiv...

In any sales engagement, there are a few hurdles that you must get past.   You need to build a relationship. You need to communicate some value of your product to their business and future outcomes You need to find the money You need to differentiate yourself from the competition.   Start to listen and take note of questions that you get from your customers and prospects. If you hear it a few time...

Mark Hunter, CSP, is also known as "The Sales Hunter." Mark Hunter helps companies and salespeople find and retain better prospects they can close at full price.   Hunter accomplishes such through his keynote speaking, sales training, consulting services, and 3 best-selling books: A Mind for Sales, High-Profit Prospecting, and High-Profit Selling.   Delivering insights based on 30+ years of sales...

As a sales pro, are you innovating?   Are you thinking outside of the box?   We all know that the best ideas come from the field and not the ivory tower of executive leadership!   Why do you think your manager is always coming to you with new ideas? In some cases, they may be neurotic, maybe micromanaging you. In many cases, they are just trying to innovate. They are trying to do things better, ge...

Marissa Schmidt has a long track record of product management and product management leadership with companies like Bay Networks, Nortel, and Citrix.   We get into how top sales professionals engage and leverage the product management team to accelerate and grow sales.    She has relentless optimism while balancing what's right for the business and being customer-oriented. She has a strong work et...

Why in the world would you want to create an extra administrative task as a seller?   I probably worked for about 15 years before I went into a company where everyone did a weekly report. It was part of the culture for all departments. For sales, AM did one up to their manager, managers did one to their directors, and directors up to their VP.    Was it a pain in the but? Definitely, there were so...

Andrew Plato is an experienced CEO, founder, entrepreneur, and cybersecurity expert.  In 1995 Andrew founded one of the first companies dedicated to information security, Anitian.  While CEO of Anitian, Andrew was a pioneer in network security, risk management, and compliance practices. This culminated in 2016 with the invention of an automated platform that dramatically accelerated the deployment...

Today’s episode discusses when you should take a job for less money.   I have two different perspectives on this. The early career rep vs. the more experienced rep.   Let’s first look at this from the perspective of someone that is in their first few years of a career. In reality, your starting pay may not be that much so slightly less should be insignificant. If you are an early career rep, your...

Samuel has a highly successful career as a contact Center Artificial Intelligence pre-sales engineer for Avaya, Nuance, Talkdesk, and Avaamo . An award-winning AI engineer and high-performance sales producer thus, he was afforded numerous international travel opportunities for business. He acquired a global perspective, appreciation, and language skills from decades of working remotely for worldwi...

I don’t think so.   It is more challenging as a vehicle for communication than it was before.   A huge part of the issue 1) Volume and 2) Horrible emails with generic topics. As a tech sales professional, whether you are selling software, hardware, or anything, e-mail should absolutely be a tool that you use as part of your selling process.   Go for quality. Do some research on the person, the com...

Amit is results oriented business leader with progressive experience in Sales, alliances, client relationships, business development and delivery functions. Have handled roles and delivered results in areas of Infrastructure transformation, SI services, contact centers and voice technology areas.    He is a leader with global experience and managing teams across geographies driving order book and...

Why does this matter if you are a sales professional? This is one of those areas that if you don’t take ownership of your personal development plan, no one else will. Gone are the days where you worked for a company for a lifetime that may have included a way to manage your overall career progression, personal development, and training. That is not the world that you, a high tech sales professiona...

Scott Maurer is the Director of Business Development for Advanta IRA, a nationwide self-directed IRA administrator. Scott has worked for Advanta since 2006, helping thousands of people invest in alternative assets (mainly real estate) using their IRAs and old 401ks. Scott is a frequent speaker and lecturer on the topic of self-directed IRAs and has also appeared on many real estate and investment...

It’s possible. Not all territories and account bases are equal. I do generally challenge this idea or comment. Why is that? 1) Most of the reps that I have heard personally say this have not done deep level due diligence on their territory. Most of the reps that have said this do not have a well-defined personal sales process.    This week I share some tips on how to handle a situation where you m...

Darrell knows how to help businesses grow. Rolling up his sleeves, he works behind the scenes with executives, sales leaders, and marketing professionals to develop and execute revenue growth strategies. He knows what works and what doesn’t, and he is sharing this information in his new best-selling book Revenue Growth Engine: How To Align Marketing and Sales to Accelerate Growth.   Over the past...

Are you giving gifts that make an impact and are memorable to your customer? Does your customer really want more swag, a bottle of wine, cookies, or chocolate?   I personally received two gifts that stand out that I remember this year. One was a box of truffles from Harry and David. The only reason they really stand out is because they are an old Oregon brand, and they were also one of my very fir...

Trent Dressel has quickly moved up the ranks over the last four years starting as a college hire into the Sales Development Representative (SDR) role to a Senior Account Executive. While successfully selling in the SaaS space, Trent has also built a very popular YouTube channel with over 1 Million views! In this episode, Trent not only shares some of the things he is doing to excel and grow, but h...

How many times have you sent your meeting follow up and only one person responded?  It’s usually the manager, the higher ranked person, or the person that scheduled the meeting.  When you follow my process outlined in episode 49, you will usually get a response from the customer.  What frustrates me is that more people on the email chain are not involved in the response. It is easier to let someon...

Lee challenges executives to blast through the artificial barriers that impede their success. He is an entrepreneur, results-driven consultant, and dynamic keynote speaker. Clients say he has a gift for architecting sales success by helping them:   He is the bestselling, award-winning author of six books, including Sales Differentiation and Hire Right, Higher Profits. In September 2021, his sixth...