The Advanced Selling Podcast

Send us Fan Mail What a great day we had at The Jazz Kitchen in Indianapolis! Thanks to all who came from far and wide to join us that day. We actually recorded three podcasts there and this is the first. It came from an audience question: How do I grow my service business? Bill, Bryan and Brooke (Green) all gave that question a shot and in this episode you hear three good ideas (at least they tho...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Bill and Brooke, address a common issue: How do you improve your selling skills if you weren't cut out to be in sales? The fact is that many technical people have ended up in the role of selling (in fact, many sales people end up there, too). So, how do you model your behavior? Must you really change who you are to be successful in the sales/business developm...

Send us Fan Mail Today's podcast addresses a question from a listener who wanted to know how to begin the sales process when they had very little in terms of case studies, or customer experience. In his case, it was a start-up company in the IT space. Bill and Bryan dished out some tips to use in beginning to position him in the market. The fact is that, in some ways, this is an excellent pos...

Send us Fan Mail Bill and Bryan each had client experiences recently where their clients were being driven by their "bid boards." They talk about the hazards of poor business development technique. And, of course, they give you some new things to think about as you improve your business development skills. Those skills are vital for you building relationships that can sustain your busine...

Send us Fan Mail Well, you probably know us by now and know that isn't our strategy. But the fact is that we get questions from listeners that often sound like that. This week, Bryan is off in his world of Big Ten Football Officiating…and Jill steps in (admirably, we might add) and poses some questions to Bill that come from our audience. Mail us your thoughts and questions to listener@advanc...

Send us Fan Mail Little did Bryan Neale know, we were still recording the podcast.  Listen as he gets carried away with a movie quote. Can you name that movie?

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Brooke Green joins Bill and Bryan to address the issue of how to sell if you’re an ‘accidental salesperson.’ Brooke works with quite a few companies and people, who don’t consider themselves salespeople, yet who are still responsible for new business development. This includes accountants, engineers, subject matter experts, consultants, technical advisors, project...

Send us Fan Mail We've all received it - that email that comes, ominously, from someone you hoped to work with. It's the email that says, "Thanks, but no thanks." And it's like a punch to the gut. Well, that all may be overly dramatic, but the fact is that we all have received the 'ding letter' whether it's an actual letter or not. In this podcast, Bill and...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, Bill and Bryan address something you should always share with your prospects (and clients, too). It has to do with your "why" in business. Recently, Bill wrote a blog called 3 Reasons You Should Share Your Why With Customers citing Simon Sinek's famous talk at TED on The Golden Circles. We think it applies directly to sales people - and...

Send us Fan Mail The title might make no sense BEFORE you listen to this episode, but Bill and Bryan interview Josh Hinds , who is not only a podcast listener but also an author. Josh gives new meaning to the phrase 'double entrendre.' In this podcast, Josh shares some of the main concepts from his book, Live Big, including mistakes people make when they goal-set and some insight on how...

Send us Fan Mail There is a right answer to that. But it may not be what you've been taught. So in this podcast, Bill and Bryan will review the difference and what they new model of selling requires from you. Here is the secret: Better positioning leads to less need for persuasion. Listen in and learn! Also mentioned in the podcast: Want a second opinion on your slide deck? Bill and Bryan off...

Send us Fan Mail There have been many entries on the ASP LinkedIN group about RFP (requests for proposals). So heated has been the discussion that we decided to devote an entire episode to RFP Strategy. While not a step-by-step solution, Bill and Bryan offer some hints and techniques to think through as you answer (or don't answer) RFP's. Also mentioned in this podcast: "The Golden...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Bill and Bryan take you behind the scenes on how they work through coaching with clients. They take an actual client they're working with, outline the problem and then work through how to coach that person. *This will be useful for sales managers to understand better how to coach your team. But also good for front line people who have these issues. In the fir...

Send us Fan Mail How many times have you been surprised by prospect behavior? You think you're at Z and you come to find out you're only at D. Here is a technique that Bill and Bryan give you that helps you know where you are with a prospect. The entire topic starts with a dating story (that's actually quite funny.) But ends with practical sales advice for where you are in the sales...

Send us Fan Mail Do you have prospects in the sales funnel that just can't seem to make a decision? Thought so. Most sellers do. And most of us blame it on the prospect. In this episode, Brooke and Bill address the problem that plagues most sales people--vagueness and ambiguity. Are you really being a clear communicator when you're speaking with prospects and clients? Or, what about you...

Send us Fan Mail We've been asked occasionally to share something about ourselves with our audience. After all, Bill and Bryan train and coach sales teams all over the US And as they would tell you, in order to be better at training and coaching, they also must be receptive to outside counsel as well. So while they actually relate their training experiences throughout the podcasts, Bill and B...

Send us Fan Mail Bill had a chance to go train a relatively new sales force recently. After he was finished, he asked the group, "What's the biggest lesson you got from the training?" All lessons boiled down to two categories. And in this podcast, Bill and Bryan explore their take on the two lessons and how even the most advanced among us can learn from this exercise.

Send us Fan Mail Quite often the sales manager or leader wants to make a joint salesmeeting call with one of his people on a prospect. In theory, it all sounds good and plausible but sometimes theexecution of that joint call is a disaster. In this podcast episode Bill and Brian address the mental game ofjoint calls as well as the technical hurdles that present themselves. And they also give you a...

Send us Fan Mail It seems that recently there has been much discussion in our client base about the difference between a business development person and a sales person. So what is the difference or is there any? In this episode, Bill and Bryan dig deeper into the subject and find there are very specific differences in how each role performs. Listen in to see how you measure up. Also mentioned in t...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Bill and Bryan invite Brooke Green in to give real life examples of crazy (and not so crazy) things that clients say. Then Bill and Bryan, in rapid fire format provide their counsel on what a good reaction would be from the sales person. Also mentioned in this podcast: [WEBINAR] How To Sell A Premium Product in a Commodity Market Join the A dvanced Selling Podcast...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Bill and Bryan help you reverse engineer your sales funnel to maximize your results. The fact is that most sales people get in a rut when in pursuit of people to put in their pipeline.  And that rut is usually caused by not dissecting how someone gets into your funnel in the first place. So they give you 5 things to think about when re-engineering your sales pipel...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is one of our frequent mailbag shows where we take questions from our audience and we’ve received great questions this week! Bryan is out this week, so Bill and our producer, Jill Vanarsdall, answer these questions: How do I sell a premium product? How do I call higher? How do I stop from doing too much unpaid consulting when I’m in “expert mode”? What is your favorit...

Send us Fan Mail PODCAST ALERT: If you're a VP of Sales or sales manager, you MUST listen to this podcast. We've all been through similar situations--you have a client who is buying a lot--and suddenly, without reason, they stop (or severely reduce purchases).  This topic comes from our mailbag - a listener who had this very thing happen to him emailed us to ask for help. In this episode...

Send us Fan Mail Bryan Neale posted a blog last week that got tons of response. The essence of it was that we can learn a lot about selling from Beastie Boys' song lyrics and it was all inspired by Adam Yauch aka MCA who recently passed away. OK...so it's a stretch...but, in this podcast, Bryan and Bill address [...]

Send us Fan Mail OK, you've heard all of the statistics about how many Y'ers are in the workforce now. And you've also heard bits and pieces about their attitudes and attributes. Heck, maybe you ARE ONE!  But what is the truth behind the clutter? In our podcast this week, Lori Ermi (The Ermi Group) spends time with Bill acquainting him to the intricacies of that generation and how y...