SALES with ASLAN

The Coronavirus is already causing business disruption. Sales Conferences are being cancelled or postponed. Customers are changing their spending patterns. As sales reps and sales managers think about how they need to help their customers though this challenging time, ASLAN CEO Tom Stanfill says, “There is always a way to win. There are those who see some things as a barrier and others who see opp...

Not necessarily. Tension in the buyer-seller relationship is definitely bad but there is a kind of tension that can be healthy. This week on #sALESwithASLAN, our President Marc Lamson and I unpack the two main types of tension that exist with our clients. This topic actually comes from a client of ASLAN’s and because they also recommended our Ale choices today, we send a proud shout out to Utah an...

Ep. 44 – You Hate Process But It Will Save You This week on #sALESwithASLAN we talk process, sales process. As a selling free spirit, you might think I got this, I don’t need not stinking process. Well you do and we discuss why and the consequences of what happens if you don’t follow a roadmap to solving your customers problems. We address what is it and what’s the purpose of a sales process as we...

On #sALESwithASLAN we talk a lot about truly being other-centered® not just trying to fake it. Well this week, I am joined by a true disciple of this philosophy, Matt Caldwell . Matt and I have known one another for nearly 20 years since we collaborated at APC in the early 2000s. Matt was exposed to ASLAN early in his career and has carried the foundations through a selling journey that has includ...

This week on #sALESwithASLAN, we take a look at some of the best and worst emails we get from sales people. By laughing and crying and exploring what we see, we hope to give you some ideas for improving your own #prospecting email approach. This can be such a useful tool for you to hunt and find new business but when done poorly, it can really backfire. You too could wind up on a podcast 😉 Enjoy...

Most people think of forecasting as a necessary evil of a selling career. What if that were a false premise? What if forecasting your selling year was really all about you? This week on #sALESwithASLAN, our President Marc Lamson and I unpack a multistep process for forecasting that will not only help you accurately predict your revenue but how you will achieve that goal as well. We discuss forecas...

As we close the year, #sALESwithASLAN delves into the peaks and valleys of a career in selling (along with some ale and bourbon). We know the holiday season can be stressful as we discussed in episode 38 but it can be exhilarating as well. The key to long term success in selling is to keep it even keel. Never let your success or more importantly, your failure,  define you. Never get depressed...

We switch gears this week on #sALESwithASLAN as we turn our attention to those to answer the phone in order to sell. As always, we share ideas and stories about how to better #MasterYourCraft as a sales person or #SalesManager.  Marc Lamson, President of ASLAN Training and Development offers a couple of key differences to selling in a reactive phone based environment. Of course he brings the...

Joining me on this week with #sALESwithASLAN is long time seller and sales leader Dan Howington . We unpack the concept of stress as it relates to our personal and professional lives. We all feel it but how we deal with it is important. Listen as we discuss some important ideas on how we can take back control of our reaction to this detractor of joy we know as stress. #salestips #salescoaching

Brief show this week and more of a Thanksgiving Day blessing to all those who follow us here in #sALESwithASLAN. Take time to recharge and rejuvenate with friends, family and maybe a good Ale. Go get the book Be Excelelent at Anything by Tony Schwartz with Jean Gomes . This is a great read for over the holidays as you will investigate the four changes to get more out of work and life. #HappyThanks...

This week on #sALESwithASLAN, we welcome back ASLAN®'s CEO Tom Stanfill to discuss how to identify political structure. What do we mean by Political? Formal org chart? The reality is that there’s an Informal power structure – rank doesn’t equal influence. So the real decision maker, the one that determines what happens, may have more power and lower rank. Why is that important to know? Because you...

Salespeople hate prospecting. Period. It has traditionally not been a fun part of the game. However, most of us that sell for a living, know that we cannot have a robust pipeline if we don’t #prospect on a regular basis. So this week on #sALESwithASLAN, we unpack the 5 things that ASLAN President Marc Lamson has learned over the last 25 years . Some of this stuff you know, some might be new. Botto...

Do you ever get an email from a customer that simply says, please provide me with a description of what you do and how much it costs? They ask you to send your elevator pitch and price book right over, right? Well, this week on #sALESwithASLAN, we take a real-life example and look at how you can give your customers what they want while building your relationship up into #trustedadvisor status. Joi...

#sALESwithASLAN is back with another fascinating topic this week. Everyone in sales and sales management is forced to negotiate from time to time. The common reputation of sales negotiations is that there is a winner and a loser. The first one to throw out a number loses. Well, maybe what you have learned over the years is just plain wrong. Listen as we look at this differently. When you feel like...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes back Marc Lamson and ASLAN CEO Tom Stanfill to discuss something most sales reps know, but forget all the time. You do not have unlimited time. In fact it is your most precious resource so maximize your selling time by choosing who you serve. We dive deep into some tried and true methods for choosing the best opportunities and accounts for that matter. Hint: it's not alway...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes back Marc Lamson to discus the top four ways to set yourself up for a tremendous 2020 selling year. We delve into things like helping your accounts establish their budgets, to building your own forecast to collaborating with but not relying on marketing for you’re growth ambitions. Enjoy the knowledge along with the beer. #salestips #salesstratagy #salescoaching

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes one or our ASLAN Certified Resellers, Joe Colavito from Corevu in Raleigh NC. Joe has been one of our partners for several years and he specializes in what he calls the reps “Can Do and Will Do” which ties perfectly to our ASLAN Catalyst program dials that lead to results. Listen this week as Joe tells two amazing personal stories of coaching to the rep's personal motivati...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes back Chris White, author of The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers, and current VP of Sales Engineering at ETI Software to the podcast to discuss the impact of the ASLAN workshop we did together this week. We talk about why they saw the need for sales training, why ASLAN, what they learned and most importantly, how they plan to take the new knowledge to leverag...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes Tom Stanfill back to the podcast to discuss 3 key ingredients that ensures a successful sales person. First we must connect our goal to our own person motivation and then we must ensure we break the goals down into daily and weekly chunks. Finally, we have to invest in the development of our skills and knowledge to improve every day.  It's not too late to impact your...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes Tom Stanfill back to the podcast to discuss how we must over prepare for that big presentation. Whether we are selling hardware, software or even services, we have to do these key things to make sure we put our best foot forward. Hint: the biggest opportunity to success or failure comes in our preparation in the weeks prior to the big show. Learn how to ensure you are read...

 #sALESwithASLAN is here each week to help sales reps and sales coaches work better together. This week author and professional coach to the coaches, Bobbi Kahler  joins me as we focus our attention on the two main ways that coaches can sabotage their own goals to drive real change into a selling organization. Learn about these two main saboteurs along with how to recognize how you do it...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes Tab Norris back to the show to dive deeper into a topic we have hit before: conversational and effective discovery. Today we focus on identifying the 5 Mistakes we make when trying to uncover our customer’s stated and unstated needs. Tab walks us through the challenges of overcoming each of these mistakes and we will come back for another episode in the near future to addr...

#sALESwithASLAN welcomes Blake Beus who is the Vice President of Business Development at AllenComm to discuss what it's like to be a client of ASLAN Training and Development, but a key partner as well. We'll discuss the need for ignition type workshops as well as “training in the flow of work”, micro and macro learning and the importance of “effortlessly available” content and sales tools, and the...

This week on #sALESwithASLAN we visit the ongoing conversation on "what helps sellers improve more?" sales tools or training. The answer won’t surprise you. Joining me this week is Jeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy at SalesLoft. We discuss things like what is sales enablement, sales engagement and sales training. What helps reps bridge any gaps in sales execution and we continue discussing the l...

This week on #sALESwithASLAN we discuss how companies and therefore sales reps struggle with connecting to their original purpose for being. Sales reps are more successful when they are connected to the purpose of the company that they call home. Learn how selling with purpose for a purpose from author Matt Carcieri whose book Bleed a Creed helps companies return to their origin, can allow you to...