The Sales Evangelist: Sales Training|Speaking|Business Marketing|Donald Kelly

Things To Look For When Hiring Successful Sellers   Hiring is part of the sales process but businesses know there are things to look for when hiring successful sellers. Getting the right people to join your sales team is one of the most effective ways to boost your sales revenue.  Brian Keels is a businessman living the life of a busy entrepreneur. In addition to being a happy husband and father, he is also working for a very large enterprise software company. There, he takes on different sales and leadership roles from regional to global levels. He’s done businesses in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Recently, he’s been doing enterprise sales in Barcelona, Spain by day as well as building his own investing business in the U.S.  Things to look for when hiring successful sellers  Sales leaders are always looking to hire successful sellers to help increase their revenue. The model in which a business is working is an important consideration when hiring new people.  Business models vary.  While some are con

The Accidental Seller Recap  - "Three Things I Learned"   For the past 8 weeks, we have been interviewing several successful “accidental sellers” and sharing their stories.  We have come to know how they started in sales when it wasn’t their intention to ever be in sales, and what they did to become successful.  The last episode aired last week when Donald interviewed a very special person in his life, his own mother, who Donald credits in shaping him to be the man he is today.  As he wraps up the series, Donald wanted to share his three main takeaways.  The Accidental Seller Series Recap This series has been well-received by listeners because they’re hearing their own stories in these interviews.  Each story has been relatable and speaks to the struggles and successes that many experiences in the sales industry.  The guests were very open about their challenges and feeling like a failure as being part of their journey. These are stories everyone relates to.  From these struggles, a success story was born, an

Stop Hiring From Your "Gut" - Putting a Formal Hiring Process In Place That Works   The hiring process can be a challenge for many. There’s the temptation of hiring people from the gut when in fact, there needs to be a formal hiring process in place that works for every company regardless of its size.  Kristie Jones works with early-stage startups and helps these companies do three things - process, strategies, and people. She has been in the staff leadership industry for 20 years and as part of her consulting services, she offers companies the strategies for hiring the right people. Kristie now manages her own company, the Sales Acceleration Group, and has helped funded and non-funded startups in the Midwest for the last four years. Her services are focused on the strategies that companies can use to hire the right people.  Hiring from the gut Hiring from the gut is basically hiring based on first impressions. In the sales world, it’s very much like sending a contract to your prospect without doing a discove

How To Craft A Rock Solid Sales Pitch To Potential Investors    A sales pitch is part of the selling process but not all salespeople know how to craft a rock-solid sales pitch to potential investors.  First, everyone is a salesperson. Regardless of what you do, everyone sells to someone. Brian Harrington started in the infomercial business. He worked for his father who was one of the principal pioneers of the infomercial industry. His experience taught him the craft of selling products on TV.  In those early years, Brian saw how easy it was to sell through television advertising but he eventually saw how investments could be lost as fast as money was made.  They made some changes and instead of sticking exclusively with Infomercials, they followed customers to where they were making their purchases. That decision led them to the digital world and social media.  Brian and his team started to sell products through Google and other online opportunities such as Facebook. Since then, they’ve branched out to severa

The Accidental Seller Series 8  - "Norma Bell" This is the last episode for the Accidental Seller Series. Because it’s the last, it needed a very special guest, Norma Davis Bell, Donald, The Sales Evangelist’s mom.  Norma Bell wanted to become a policewoman growing up because of the idea of protecting and helping people. As she grew older, however, her path took her in another direction. After Norma decided she wasn’t going to train to be a policewoman, she discovered she had the skill to make dresses.  Norma’s older sister, Ivy, wanted to support her and connected her with a friend with the idea that Norma could be her apprentice.  As it turned out, however, the friend wanted an assistant more than she wanted to teach so the opportunity was short-lived. Ivy, who owned a small store and bar at the time, new Norma was great with people and invited her to work with her. Ivy had a great head for business, was able to network well, could make things happen and managed the administrative details of their work.  Wh

How Can My Personal Brand Set Me Apart From My Competition 2020?    The year is almost over. As a salesperson, how can you set your personal brand apart from your competition in 2020?  Veronica Romney is solely focused on educating and facilitating individuals in their marketing and branding efforts. Veronica and her team are helping clients to stand out from their competition. They make it their goal to ensure you position yourself correctly so you can jump into the narrative and story that your prospective customer has as opposed to trying to force the customer into yours.  You Don’t have to Be the Best of the Best  Many businesses and sales reps are under the assumption that in order to distinguish their personal brand, they have to be the best of the best. The prevailing thought is that the only way to be seen as special is to look bigger and be better than everyone else in the same industry. This mindset can be exhausting for both business owners and sales professionals and can lead to burnout as they fi

How To Create A LinkedIn Profile That Consistently Brings New Business To Your Pipeline   Many salespeople create a LinkedIn profile to bring in new business but are they creating a profile that is attractive to a potential buyer? Felipe Lodi is a returning guest and he’s back to teach salespeople how they can create a LinkedIn profile to bring in new business. Felipe is based in Ireland and he is helping other expatriates like himself to establish themselves in Europe. By teaching them the social skills needed and building their LinkedIn accounts, he’s helping them market their abilities and attract opportunities. He launched his book, Advanced LinkedIn, last year based on hundreds of workshops he’s done within the public and private sectors throughout Ireland.  Common Mistakes Salespeople Make on LinkedIn  There are many common mistakes made on LinkedIn. Once you know what they are, they can be avoided. The most common mistake is the failure to use headlines creatively.  The headline is 120 characters long

The Accidental Seller Series 7  - "Debby Montgomery Johnson"   Here’s another episode from the Accidental Seller Series where we interview successful salespeople who didn’t start their careers with the intention of going into sales.  Debby Montgomery Johnson is the president of Benfotiamine.net. Most of Debby’s family members are in the medical field and growing up, she wanted to be an anesthesiologist. It was during middle school when she worked at a hospital, she thought being an anesthesiologist was cool. When she got into high school, she discovered medicine wasn’t for her. Her interest was in languages so she studied French, Spanish, and a little bit of German. Once in college, she majored in Political Science and got her bachelor’s degree.  Debby had planned to go on to law school but after she got out of college, she enrolled in paralegal school and worked for a firm specializing in corporate and family law after graduation.  Unfortunately, she was let go from that job.  Getting into sales Being releas

5 Counterintuitive Mistakes Preventing You From Closing Revenue    There are times salespeople don’t make the best decisions that lead to closing deals. These mistakes can cause a loss in revenue. Let’s take a look at the 5 counter intuitive mistakes preventing you from closing revenue.  Devin Reed is a content strategy manager at Gong. He handles all the content marketing strategy courses and is responsible for presentations. He also goes to roadshows, such as Sales Live Miami.  At this roadshow, Devin talked about  5 Counterintuitive Mistakes Preventing You From Closing Revenue. It’s about the five things salespeople think are good practices, and are trained to believe are good habits when in fact, they’re the opposite. These five mistakes hurt their deals and sales conversations. What Devin is sharing is backed up by data.  Devin works for a company that has millions of sales conversations. They’ve analyzed these conversations to see patterns that help them get an idea of the things salespeople talk about

How To Write A Cold Email Your Prospect Will Open And Reply To   The cold email has been part of the sales process for a very long time but how do you actually write a cold email that your prospect will open and reply to? Anton van Rhyn is the CEO and founder of the company Wavo,  a cold email platform that helps salespeople automate email outreach and follow-up. He also built Huron, a company for outbound prospecting and service. Anton has used  both his software development experience and sales development experience to fine-tune the email automation platform.  A cold email automation platform  Anton built a cold email automation platform in order to assist sales representatives to relieve them of these more mundane tasks. The platform creates a sequence for the machine to follow. It can reach out to prospects and follow up in a way that looks  like human effort. The tool is very efficient in that it focuses on making initial contacts while it frees up sales reps to focus on their demos and talking to peopl

This entry is the sixth episode of the Accidental Seller series. A lot of people didn’t grow up with dreams of getting into professional selling. In the United States alone, there are about 4.14 million people who are in sales. Joseph Storer is one of them.  Growing up, Joseph Storer wasn’t sure of what his career would look like. He was a lazy student in high school but he had a passion for playing baseball. Joseph thought he’d end up working with cars as an electrician, just like his father.  In his freshman year in college, he discovered his interest in business and working with people. His first experience in business was right after he went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Going into the mission field was a difficult decision because he had a student permit that was valid for six years. He was sent to Brazil, learned a foreign language, and lived in a big city. Joseph discovered a whole other world filled with great people and exciting experiences. The mission taught him

How Can I Use AI To Increase Sales? Have you ever thought to use AI to increase sales? In today’s society, the application of AI is apparent throughout many industries, including sales. 27% of global consumers say that AI can deliver better service than humans, 38% believe AI will soon improve customer service, and 73% of global consumers  are willing to utilize AI if it makes their lives easier.  Chad Burmeister is a cofounder of  Sales Ex Inc. Their company is rooted in the idea that AI can increase revenue, eliminate repetition, and make selling more efficient and effective.  Growing up, Chad had always been at the cutting edge of technology and was always looking for ways to make people’s lives more efficient.  Chad is officially releasing his book, AI for Sales, this Thanksgiving, November 28th along with Stu Heinecke’s Get the Meeting. If you buy both books on Amazon and send them a screenshot, you’ll get a dozen VIP conference codes for next year to attend events such as Sales 3.0 and AISP. With the co

Three Ways To Make You More Successful Selling Over The Phone   Have you ever tried selling  sale without being in front of someone? Three tactics  to successfully sell over the phone include building relationships, choosing the right words, and knowing the right speed. Joe Ingram is a sales genius who uses an intellectual approach to sales. Looking at the training cycle and  sales industry , Joe realized that phone conversations play an integral part in the process and many people are missing this key point.  The average individual in the U.S. touches their cellphones 2,500 times a day. It’s very observable when you walk into Starbucks. Nobody would even notice you walked in because they’re  looking at their phones. We are continuously on the phone.  While using email is a good way to communicate, the product is only perceived as great  up to a certain price. Sending out a well-written email is a good marketing strategy but there’s a big difference in sending emails and talking to somebody over the phone to

The Accidental Seller - Stephen Snyder Welcome to the fifth episode of The Accidental Series.  Some people are into sales because it’s their passion, while others were led to the industry because of their circumstances. We call them the accidental sellers.  Stephen Snyder is a district sales coordinator for Aflac. Growing up, Stephen loved playing sports and he aspired to become a professional athlete. In his college days, he was fortunate enough to play baseball. He was good at it and his life revolved around playing the game. Despite that, he didn’t become a professional baseball player. Apparently, life had other plans for Stephen.  Stephen realized that sports wasn’t for him after doing an internship during his senior year in college. He saw how tough it was to work in the field of sports marketing. You didn’t become the head of scouting just because you knew the game.  His job as an intern required physical labor from 7 AM until the end of the game. A sports manager had to be at the field long after the

How to Build A Six Figure Income Even If You're Not Great At Closing!  Ever wonder how you can build a six-figure income even if you’re not great at closing? Closing is one of the most important parts of sales. It is crucial and every word you utter during closing matters.  Terry Hansen hails from Idaho Falls, Idaho. His plan is simple but he still has impressive sales success stories. He’s worked with many organizations and sales reps around the country and helped them boost their sales. Throughout his sales journey, Terry has observed three bottleneck scenarios in which entrepreneurs and sales professionals can get stuck. The first is that many struggle to increase their sales and income because they are not getting in front of the right kinds of companies and individuals. They are going at it like opening a phone book and just calling from the top of the list, hoping that someone will buy from them. Once on the phone, they don’t spend time introducing themselves, starting a conversation and making appointm

Networking Effectively and Creating a Sphere of Influence The idea of networking effectively and creating a sphere of influence is nothing new in sales. It’s a facet of sales that everybody understands and executes. Networking is one sure way of meeting new people, building relationships, and it eventually opens doors for opportunities.  Likky Lavji has been meeting people and building relationships for 30 years. He built and grew his IT company based on his referral network. By the time he sold his company, he had ample knowledge about how to do the business. Now, he’s sharing his knowledge with others. The old methods of doing business  Face-to-face meetings and getting to know people before starting the business are old methods of doing business. Today, people depend on social media to grow their business. We are bombarded with social diversions making us adept in communicating using social media platforms. The downside to that is it’s becoming more difficult for many to have conversations face-to-face.  A

The Accidental Seller Series - Wendell Jordan This is the 4th episode for the Accidental Seller series.  Wendell Jordan is the owner of Jordan Consults and a local SEO specialist. His company works with small businesses to increase their digital footprint.  Growing up, Jordan and his friends wanted to become professional basketball players. However, playing for the NBA became an afterthought when he reached high school. His first few years in college were spent in actively pursuing the business side of music. By then, he was in and out of recording studios in New York City. Perceptions of sales Wendell thought of salespeople as sleazy individuals. He first came across sales when he was young.  A vacuum salesman was doing door-to-door sales and he wouldn’t leave until his mother threatened to call the police. The salesman was trying to force his mother to buy a product they didn’t need. That  experience had a negative impact on Wendel and affected how he viewed sales.  Wendell’s mother worked for the city of N

How to Seize Attention and Build Trust in a Busy World    As salespeople, we look for ways to seize attention and build trust. While prospecting and building trust among clients is critical, it’s also one of the most difficult tasks in sales.  Ron Tite is the founder and keynote speaker of the Toronto-based agency, Church+State as well as the author of Think Do Say: How to Seize Attention and Build Trust in a Busy, Busy World.  Being an executive creative director at a large multinational ad agency, Ron has extensive knowledge about traditional agency marketing, advertising, and design. In addition to that, he’s also an experienced comedian, using that in his own entrepreneurial journey. Ron is also  an investor who appreciates the need for sales to do business.  The desperate need for attention  Salespeople are looking at the ecosystem correctly but are using the wrong tactics to make a breakthrough. They’ve been chasing metrics that don’t deliver to build long term businesses.  There are so many thought le

How to Negotiate a Mutual Win  Salespeople are always looking for a win and when closing with clients, landing a great deal while being able to negotiate a mutual win  is the idea goal.   Adam Ayers studied mechanical engineering and built a software technology startup after graduating. He is now the Chief Technology Officer and founder of company, Number5, which specializes as an outsource CTO for celebrities, eCommerce companies, and internet brands. Fifty percent  of their operations involve running technology, and acquiring customers, for commerce businesses and executing the data science.  The other fifty percent is on custom technology where they build platforms, APIs, and high-performance software on the internet.  Negotiate a mutual win When Adam was a child he asked his father what inventors do and the response resonated with him.. He was told  the best inventors don’t just invent things, they are capable of selling what they’ve invented. That thought motivated him to make things himself,build a team

The Accidental Seller- "Ashlee Reusch" This is the third episode for the Accidental Seller series brought to you by The Sales Evangelist.  Ashlee Reusch is a business development representative at Cognos HR. Ashlee was always on the lookout for change growing up and thus wasn’t chasing a specific career. She graduated high school a year early and proceeded to go to college. She was aiming to get her radiology technical certification at the local community college. She majored in Science and went into the medical field.  Ashlee had a change of heart and realized that science wasn’t her passion. The classes didn’t excite her and being a creative person at heart, she felt like the course didn’t foster that part of her. She didn’t want to sign up for endless classes to get certifications to advance her career in the medical field in the future. She was at a loss for what to do next and that’s how she fell into sales.  Falling into sales  She was finishing her associate’s degree at a community college and was deci