Accelerate! With Andy Paul

In this episode, Kevin Kruse, author of the best-selling book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits Of Seven Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight A Students and 239 Entrepreneurs, shares some of the secrets he learned from his hundreds of interviews with ultra-productive people. Among the many facets of time management, and productivity, we discuss in this information-packed episode are: Why 1440 is the most important number you need to learn. Why successful people don’t use to-do lists. And, why you shouldn’t either. Sir Richard Branson’s secret productivity tool. Three questions that will save you eight hours per week! The 321Zero method that will transform how you manage your email. This is a must listen episode for everyone. (And, when you’re done, read Kevin’s book. You owe it to yourself.)

In this episode, Bill Cates, founder of Referral Coach International, shares the secrets of accelerating your sales productivity through referrals. Because it's so hard to cut through all the noise created by the internet, social media, traditional prospecting and advertising, a personal introduction to a potential buyer is more important than ever. Among the topics we discuss are: The right mindset required to start a successful referral selling program Why customer satisfaction is not enough to guarantee referrals How to create a compelling prospect experience that generates referrals. Why you need to teach prospects how to buy what you sell. The right way to ask for a referral And much, much more! If you’re in sales or sales management, then you definitely need to listen to this episode.

My regular guest on Front Line Friday is Bridget Gleason, VP of Corporate Sales for SumoLogic. In this episode, Bridget discusses how she, as a sales leader at a high growth tech company, uses the sales planning process to help her team achieves its goals and objectives. Included among the topics we discuss in this conversation are: Does every member of your sales team need a sales plan? How managers should work with their team to create individual sales plans What works best: top down or bottoms up planning? How to use the planning process to develop unambiguous expectations for sales. Using dashboards to track performance against plans If you’re a sales leader or sales manager, then be sure to join us for this episode!

In this episode, Lee Caraher, Founder and President of Double Forte, and author of the book, Millennials and Management, The Essential Guide To Making It Work At Work talks about the best practices for harnessing the energy, motivation and tech savvy of millennials to help your business grow. In our conversation we puncture many of the unfounded myths people hold about millennials. Listen in as we talk about: How to harness the flexibility of millennials Managing the work-life balance with millennials How to clearly set expectations for millennials Why millennials adapt to change easier than other workers How to manage the multi-generational workplace Why the basic interpersonal skills work best with millennials This episode is a must listen for any CEO, manager or sales leader that manages millennials. Or, manages those who do!

In this episode, Kyle Porter, founder and CEO of SalesLoft, shares his take on what constitutes a modern sales team. He also provides a detailed look at how he has built a modern sales process at his rapidly-growing successful SaaS start-up. Included among the subjects we discuss in our conversation are: What is a modern seller? And how to determine if you are modern, or not. Optimizing the structure of the modern sales force Why specialized sales roles may not work for all companies. How to identify, hire and retain the best SDR candidates How to structure meaningful career paths for your SDRs If you’re a sales leader, sales manager, or sales rep, this episode is definitely worth the investment of your time to listen.

Trish Bertuzzi has one for you. In this episode, Trish Bertuzzi, founder & President of The Bridge Group and author of The Sales Development Playbook; Build Repeatable Pipeline and Accelerate Growth with Inside Sales, shares her perspectives on some of the key challenges sellers face in building their inside sales teams. Among the many topics we discuss in this information-packed episode are: Is technology putting a barrier between you and your prospects? Why SDRs are at risk of being replaced by automation Flaws in your hiring, onboarding and training processes that you need to fix now. Why managers aren’t correctly managing the inside sales process How to fix the “rush to demo” syndrome. If you have an inside sales team, or are planning to build one, then you absolutely need to download this episode.

In this episode, Regis Lemmens, founder of Sales Cubes and a Professor at business schools in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, shares the key findings of his extensive research into the future of B2B sales. He describes what his research found to be the necessary and inevitable evolution of consultative selling to a true collaborative partnership with buyers. Among the topics we discuss are: What is value co-creation and why is it central to future B2B selling? Why buyers may start paying you to sell to them. And what that means for the sales rep. How sales teams will continue to become more specialized. But not in the way you might think. How the hunter-farmer metaphor for sales reps will become obsolete. If you’re in sales or sales management, then you definitely need to listen to this episode.

My regular guest on Front Line Friday is Bridget Gleason, VP of Corporate Sales for SumoLogic. In this episode, Bridget discusses how she, as a sales leader at a high growth tech company, allocates and uses her time during a typical work day. She shares how allocates time in her day to preparation, managing sales, coaching her team, selling, recruiting, planning, learning and just having time to herself to think. Included among the topics we discuss in this conversation are: The type of data you need to manage and coach in real-time The regular meetings you need to have and how they should be structured for maximum effectiveness and productivity. The difference between managing your sales process and managing sales The appropriate planning horizon for sales and how much time should be invested in planning. How to use structured office hours to improve team communication If you’re a sales leader or sales manager, then you need to make sure you listen to this episode!

In this episode, Patricia Fripp, President of Fripp & Associates, past President of the National Speakers Association, and one of the leading speaking/presentation coaches, talks how to build effective sales presentations that win more deals. Patricia describes how to avoid sounding just like everyone else when presenting to clients. And she shares why “prospects would rather have a good listening to than a good talking to” and how that will shape exactly how you should present to prospects. Included among the topics we discuss are: The secrets of teaching young sales professionals how to be effective presenters to seasoned, experienced prospects A process to build effective sales presentations An effective opening line that will surprise you When and how to use visual aids (hint: stop using so many PowerPoint slides!) How to personalize virtual presentations This episode is a must listen for anyone in sales that makes sales presentations to prospects. Or manages those who do!

In this information-packed episode, Sean Burke, CEO of KiteDesk, tells why big data is a great resource for companies but is not good for sales people. He describes why sales reps need small data, and what that means in terms of providing them the right data and information that they need, right when they need it to help accelerate their sales process to close more deals. Included among the subjects we discuss in our conversation are: Why the number one issue facing sales, despite all of the new sales tools introduced over the past few years, is still prospecting. The tools that are being developed to make sales reps more effective and efficient in their prospecting efforts. Why SDR teams don’t need a CRM system (but your company still does) How to ensure that your sales tools are aligned with your prospects’ buying process. How to use relevant data at the right time to drive improved sales results If you’re a sales leader, sales manager, or sales rep, this episode is worth the investment of your time t

In this second part of my two-part conversation with Mark Roberge, CRO of HubSpot sales division and author of the best-selling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula, describes the process that he created to build the sales team that produced predictable scalable revenue growth as it rapidly marched from $0 to over $100 million in sales. Among the key topics we discuss are: How to scale your demand generation efforts How to put in place the process and resources to align marketing and sales. The unexpected skill set you should hire into your content marketing efforts. Why companies are under-investing in inbound marketing and how to balance that with proactive outbound demand gen. How to project the mix of inbound and outbound demand gen required to scale your sales. If you have the responsibility to grow a business, or scale a sales team to increase revenues, or maybe you want to run your own business someday, then this is a must listen episode. Don’t miss it! Listen today.

In this episode, Lori Richardson, President of Score More Sales, and President of Women Sales Pros, discusses how companies are missing out on the opportunity to accelerate their sales growth by not doing more to recruit and hire qualified women sales reps. Research studies have found that female sales reps routinely outsell their male counterparts. Given that data, if you’re a sales manager, why aren’t you making it a priority to hire more female sales reps? Among the key topics we discuss include: Why the modern sales force continues to be overwhelmingly male dominated. Why female sales reps have higher average quota achievement than men. But are still paid less for the same work. How to attract increased numbers of qualified women candidates for sales jobs How to spot the hidden signals that companies send out that communicate a lack of upward career opportunity for women sales professionals. How to identify the unconscious gender bias in your sales job descriptions that deter female applicants. If

In this episode, Aaron Walker, talks about his journey from being a successful businessman and serial entrepreneur to a nationally recognized life coach and mentor who helps people transform lives to become successful in business and in life. If you don’t know Aaron’s story, then you'll want to listen as he describes how his life was changed forever by a shocking event one day in 2001. And how tit led him on this path to helping people from around the world discover how they can build the relationships that enable them to maximize the impact they can have on the people that surround them in their business and personal lives. Aaron also provides you free tools that you can use to assess who you really are, what you stand for today and how to plan for success and significance in your life. If you think that there has to be more to life than just work and money, then you absolutely need to listen to this episode!

In this episode, Mike Schultz, Co-President of Rain Group and best-selling author of Insight Selling, shares the findings of an extensive research project the Rain Group conducted into what top performing sales organizations do differently from the rest. Asking questions about what companies should be doing to drive their sales organizations to be stronger, Mike reveals what they learned from the responses they received from over 450 companies across 26 different industries during this year-long study. Listen as Mike shares their findings about the relative importance of sales process maturity, investments in training and team development, goal setting, account development and many other key factors that correlate to improved sales performance. If you want to learn where you should focus your energy and your investments to transform the performance of your sales organization in 2016, then you need to listen to this episode.  

In this information-packed, rapid-fire episode, Jon Ferrara, founder and CEO of Nimble, and one of the early pioneers of the entire sales force automation industry, lays out what he believes are the dangers of the sales stack becoming too complex and too costly; putting too much emphasis on the technology and not enough on prospects and customers. He describes a simpler approach to maintaining a focus on building relationships with buyers that includes a more encompassing view of their requirements and the community that influences them. Jon shares his “5 E’s of Social Business.” You’ll have to listen if you want learn these essential keys to becoming a trusted advisor to your customers, to creating lasting value-based relationships and to building a community that produces a steady stream of referrals. If you’re in sales, service, management or leadership, then you will definitely want to invest some time to listen to this episode!

In this first part of my two-part conversation with Mark Roberge, CRO of HubSpot sales division and author of the best-selling book, The Sales Acceleration Formula, describes the process that he created to build the sales team that produced predictable scalable revenue growth as it rapidly marched from $0 to over $100 million in sales. Mark shares the process that he developed to identify and hire sales candidates that have a higher probability of being successful. He also provides detailed insights into the system he developed and implemented that effectively onboards new sales reps and enables them to rapidly become productive. If you have the responsibility to grow a business, or scale a sales team to increase revenues, or maybe you want to run your own business someday, then this is a must listen episode. Don’t miss it! Listen today. And come back next week for Part 2.  

In this episode, Bob Apollo, founder of Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, describes how to use value-based selling to transform the performance, and tap into the full potential, of your B and C level sales reps. He shares effective strategies for using value-based sales as a tool to increase the ROI that decision-makers receive from the time they invest in meetings with your sales reps. And, Bob reveals how top sales reps synchronize and align the delivery of value to the customer’s decision making process in order to simplify and shorten the time to an order. Tune in today and listen as Bob defines a process that every manager and sales leader can use to inculcate a value-based sales culture in their organizations. Do not miss this episode!

Anthony Iannarino is one of the most influential sales bloggers, an international speaker and business coach, and a successful entrepreneur. He understands in detail what it takes to grow a business. And, in this episode, Anthony quickly drills in on the one area where every sales rep should focus their time to in order to grow their book of business in 2016. Don’t miss this. He also describes why business acumen is not just a buzzword, but, an incredibly important skill that sales reps need to develop in order to maintain their relevance to their customers in 2016 and beyond. Anthony also details the steps you need to take in order to continuously increase the level of value that you deliver to prospects during your sales process. And for sales mangers, he provides a guide for how to hire sales candidates that possess the necessary business acumen to be a value creator for their customers. Finally, Anthony provides a detailed breakdown of the four main areas you need to focus on if you want to really kick

Tom Hopkins is the author of one of the most influential and all-time best-selling sales books How To Master The Art Of Selling. He has trained hundreds of thousands of sales people around the world. In this episode, Tom shares his secrets for turning yourself into a world-class sales performer. He shares why you need to have a purpose in business and life, beyond just being motivated by money, if you really want to succeed in sales. He shares a great strategy about how to tap into the people in your network to get the straight talk feedback you need to improve. He describes the four types of goals you need to set in place in order to put yourself on the path for success. And he shares some effective tools that you can use to calculate the economic value of a "no" and use that information to turn future rejection into orders. If you haven't read Tom's book, you should. But in the meantime make sure that you listen to our conversation. It will help you be a much better seller in 2016. Sales leaders and sales

That saying about failing to plan is from Ben Franklin. And, while Mike Weinberg may or may not be Ben Franklin, he is one of the smartest people I know in sales. And, in our conversation, Mike describes the two essential planning steps that every sales manager and sales rep must take at the beginning of a new sales to increase their chances for success. He provides a simple framework for creating an effective individual sales plan that sales reps should use as a roadmap throughout the sales year. Mike also talks about why an important element of the sales plan is a personal investment plan; meaning that every sales rep should have a detailed strategy for how they will invest their own time and money in their own success in 2016. Mike reveals why he continues to invest his time and money in hiring coaches and outside experts to help him improve as a consultant, and consultant and consultants, speaker and author. He does this for the same reason that you need to invest in your improvement: so that he can conti