Sales Tales - A podcast sharing epic stories that get you through your sales adventure.

Are you an under-resourced Rev-Ops professional? Are you using Rev-Ops correctly? If you are a Revenue Operations professional, how do you know you support your staff? Rosalyn Santa Elena tells Rev-Ops this: "Your job is to know the business and know the customer better than anyone else. In order to enable and support the life-cycle, you have to know how it works." Rosalyn Santa Elena is...

90% of every interaction with another person happens below the surface - or at the subconscious level. One method of understanding what happens inside that 90% is Transactional Analysis - developed by Eric Byrne in the 1950s. On today's episode, Dave and Josh break down sales interactions using Transactional Analysis. In this episode, you'll learn: 1. How some beliefs that serve you can al...

Is there a wrong enneagram type for a sales role? Jim Gum teaches us that all people place a different emphasis on thinking, feeling, and acting. In this episode of Sales Tales, he helps us understand how the enneagram can be an enlightening methodology to help you understand your customers AND the people you work with. Sales Tales Episode 28: Jim Gum - Enneagram for Salespeople, Where Communicati...

David Mattson went on his first sales call with David Sandler 30 years ago. He almost quit. In Episode 27 of Sales Tales, David Mattson returns to give David Doherty and me a series of vignettes about selling. In this series of Tales, you'll hear: How to spot red flags that appear before losing a client How manager and employee coaching is supposed to sound Mattson's epic story about the d...

David Mattson, CEO of Sandler (LinkedIn is his client), tells us why. He also says there's a HUGE upside to sales - if you're an AE, AD, BDR, SDR or Sales Leader, it will brighten your day. Mattson reminds us that you sell what you sell every day - but your buyer doesn't buy what you sell every day. This reality is what makes salespeople necessary. Sales Tales Episode 26: David Mattson...

Sellers - Have you ever been physically threatened while selling? Jesse Marseille decided virtual selling was for him after he got a shotgun pointed at his face during a door-to-door sales call. He leads growth at Truebase.ai today and helps David Doherty and Josh Shirley understand some areas where salespeople may be over-automating using today's time-saving tools. Guideposts for automation p...

Mike Montague was fired in front of 3000 people by Billy Idol.  Saying he recovered and stuck the landing is an understatement. Mike comes onto Sales Tales to tell us that "you don't get better at sales by winning; you get better by losing and surviving." About AI, Montague says: "Imagine an assistant doing work for you, but they've read the whole internet." A sales tra...

How do you create the healthy selling habits needed to hit your target? In this episode, Dave Doherty and Josh Shirley discuss why sellers can't stop at "goals." We have to create an excellent system to hit goals. A proper system comes from productive habits.  Many of these habits aren't what we want to do but what we need to do - so how can we get them started? James Clear wrote...

Regarding LinkedIn, there's a good chance you're doing it wrong. Steve Watt, Director of Market Insights at Seismic, helps us rethink what we're doing to make social selling work for us. He says educating and inspiring are essential: learn how to be a magnet, not a bullhorn. What is social selling? How can you make it work for you? In this episode, you will learn: How to do a proper pr...

Salespeople: How do you get leads from networking events? Do you find networking events (happy hours, meet-ups, associations - i.e., prospecting in large groups outside of trade shows) productive? Do you often leave frustrated and empty-handed? If you want them to work for you, you can't wing it.  Hear great sales fails from David and Josh that will give you an idea of what to do after you get...

Salespeople: You don't have to know it all. Shawn McCarrick, CEO of Sifted, walks us through the three phases of building a SaaS business when you're the first company in your market. Hear great advice on what to do when your competition finally catches up to you. Sifted is a data science company that invented the 'logistics intelligence' category. They help small parcel shippers c...

Salespeople: Your Company's Biggest Differentiator is you. Are you getting too many "maybes" when you present? Josh and Dave unpack obstacles we put in our way: not knowing the prospect's budget, making it "too much about us," and not being prepared. In this episode, you will learn: How to avoid putting too much pressure on your prospect and yourself. Many things stoppi...

A new selling conversation is between two people who don't trust each other. How do you build trust when there isn't any? Sales Tales Episode 18 - Relationships vs Rapport - How to be a trusted advisor to prospects and clients In this episode, you will learn: Why relationships aren't the same thing as rapport. Which tactics are for building relationships, and which are for rapport. Why...

Have you ever lost a sale to someone you haven't met?  Josh and Dave relive some of their most significant sales fails, focusing on reaching decision-makers. Often, in our sales process, we reach a point where we lose line of sight to the pursuit, only to find out later that what we thought was a done deal was ruled out weeks ago by..."Mr Wizard." In this episode, you will learn: Six...

Do cold calls work? They do. They also don't. At some point in your sales process, you will have to talk to someone on the phone or a video conference call.  Most salespeople don't realize that the actions they take can make prospects defensive and, well, cold. What are these actions? How do we put our customers at ease and make our first impression more productive? In this episode, you wi...

How do you attract top sales talent? Chris Do believes that if you get your culture right, everything else will follow. Do's company, The Futur, is looking for a few pirates and rebels to challenge the current education system - they work with leaders to be creative and with creatives to run their businesses better. Being clear about your mission and, more importantly, your identity and belief...

Recruiting, hiring, and training a new salesperson costs your company up to 75% of the hiree's first-year salary. If you're surprised to hear this, it may help you to think about your onboard plan more carefully - because it plays a significant role in making a new hire successful. In part 2 of our short sales onboarding series, we continue to follow the advice of Submarine Captain David M...

How do you make new people successful in 30-60-90 days? The answer may be...underwater? Sellers can learn something from Sailors. In this episode, we reflect on Submarine Captain David Marquette's book, Turn the Ship Around!, an excellent leadership text.  Borrowing a few fundamental principles from the book, Dave and Josh form three pillars to successfully onboarding salespeople: Make sure ev...

Find trust, and stay out of the way. A client of Carlos Garrido's once described the benefit of having a winning sales methodology: "Structuring a conversation where two people, who don't trust one another, can have a conversation rich in truth, and it creates action." Garrido is the founder and CEO of Miami Absolute Sales Development - a top-performing Sandler Training Franchise...

Luis Rodriguez says: "If you're trying to grow, you're a sales company." Rodriguez, former President of premier software company Keycentrix, is a leading tech thinker, Pharma Expert, Ingram's 40 under 40 prizewinner, Sales Leader, and 2022 Executive of the Year. Keycentrix helps both regular and specialty pharmacies get drugs to patients. Episode 11 - Luis Rodriguez - How to...

Have you ever sent your team to the wrong trade show or conference? Do you need more ideas for how to make the most of the shows you go to? Today's episode will give you some planning, prospecting, and ROI-focused ideas to pack your calendar with meetings during and after the show. Episode 10 - Trade Show Selling Part 2 In this episode, you'll learn: How to choose the right conference, tra...

What's the economy going to do? Are we in a recession? Will we be? What is a seller's role in this economy? What if you could ask an economist these questions? Listen to sales guys David Doherty and Josh Shirley ask a real economist and leading corporate speaker, Chris Keuhl, these questions and more. Episode 9 - Selling in this Economy Chris Keuhl says the economy still NEEDS salespeople,...

Sales Tales is back next week! We've loaded the second half of our first season with epic sales tales, more trade show fails, hot food from the road, and hilarious guests. It all begins with a "seller's" look forward at the economy. Check out the trailer.

Learn from two former Sales VPs - Josh Shirley was VP of Sales for a software company, and David was not only a VP of sales but also sold trade show space and sponsorships - he's seen trade show selling from multiple angles. They've made many mistakes and left lots of money on the table. In this episode, you'll learn: How trade show selling begins WAY before you set up the booth. To be...

Nick Barkman is the Chief Growth Officer at Seismic Digital, a full-service consumer insights, digital strategy, and activation firm offering marketing consulting services and strategy to global and hyperlocal companies.  Nick has a long history in sales - it began with pagers and newspapers. In this episode, you will learn: Common ways to keep your account people focused on new business. How to u...