Sales Success Stories

In today's bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories Podcast, I'm going to do something I've never done before. It's super personal and super uncomfortable, but given how much it resonated with others on our last Sales Success Community call, it feels like a really important thing to share. I'm trying to Defunkify myself! I have been off my game for almost an entire year, and I'm sure experiencing some mild depression. I won't get into all of the causes, because it's really not that important, and many of us get into this place for a whole variety of reasons. What I want to focus on is getting out of it!

Jack English is the top-performing Account Executive at Zencity, a complete 360 solution that enables local government leaders to understand diverse community needs by hearing from more voices. The platform brings all the essential tools into one place to help government agencies improve services, build trust and increase overall satisfaction with their communities. Prior to being elevated to AE, Jack was a top Sales Development Representative (SDR). Jack is a highly intentional sales professional who believes in managing up, taking ownership, and the power of cultivating meaningful relationships with mentors.

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast, I’ve got the complete audio from another of the top-rated presentations from the 2022 Sales Success Summit. This is Lynn Powers, who was the star of episode 147 on this podcast delivering her presentation on Grit & Tenacity For The Win, and just a note having just rewatched this myself, the Q&A at the end is just as good as Lynn’s killer presentation, so stay tuned for that and for a link to the video version so you can actually see Lynn’s presentation, click over to top1.fm/lynn2022. Here it is:

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast, I’ve got the complete audio from Ian Koniak’s presentation at the 2022 Sales Success Summit last October. This was the top-rated presentation at the last Summit and he’s now done that back to back and is working towards doing it again in 2023 as he’s already committed to present again at this year’s Summit. 2 quick notes before we get started. One, there’s a bit of language in this one, so fair warning and Two, there are definitely some visual elements, so I’d encourage you to check out the links at top1.fm/ian2022 where you can find links to the videos of both his 2022 and 2021 presentations. You’ll also find links on that page to connect with Ian and learn more about his coaching and speaking. Top1.fm/ian2022. Here it is:

Brantley Atkinson is the top Account Executive at Triple Whale, an organization that compiles data into one easy-to-use dashboard. Brantley is a focused team leader with the ability to leverage research, resources, and emerging technologies to create relevant communications. Brantley has extensive experience building partnerships and retaining customers and today he joins the show to discuss how his non-Sales background at NC State helped him tremendously in his eventual Sales career.

Today’s bonus episode might be a little bit redundant if you’re also a subscriber and regular listener of the Daily Sales Tips podcast, but I thought I’d put together this ultra-convenient set of all 10 of the top sales tips from that show in one bingable pack. Enjoy the countdown! Top 2022 Tip #1 – No Nonsense Strategy to Build More Pipeline – Anthony Natoli Top 2022 Tip #2 – Be Grateful – Jack Wilson Top 2022 Tip #3 – Be Creative in Connecting with Customers and Win More – Irfan Jafar Top 2022 Tip #4 – Use this Trick to Get Any Prospect to Call You – Shari Levitin Top 2022 Tip #5 – Mindset of a Top Performer – Jason Koons Top 2022 Tip #6 – 13 Traits of a Successful Salesperson – Meshell Baker Top 2022 Tip #7 – Resonance: The Only Thing that Matters in Your Messaging – Tyler Lessard Top 2022 Tip #8 – Winning with the Questions you Ask – Katie Jane Bailey Top 2022 Tip #9 – High Conversion Prospecting – Tom Burton Top 2022 Tip #10 – Facilitate the Sales Process – Sabrina Simmers

Leon Baumann is a Senior Account Executive and Client Champion at Dell Technologies. Leon’s focus at Dell Technologies and his career are both centered around being a Champion for his Clients. He is a firm believer in investing heavily in himself, as evidenced by the numerous training programs he’s taken part in at Wharton, Kellogg, and the Professional Selling and Sales Management program from Harvard. As a result of these efforts, and his relentless pursuit to serve his customers with relationships built on a foundation of trust, he is an Authenticated Client Champion.

I've got one more short update episode for you as we wrap up the year. We should be back with a new interview episode the first week of January, so make sure you're subscribed to the podcast. The first update is that the videos from the 2022 Sales Success Summit should be available just in time for Christmas. If you've already signed up and are waiting for those to be delivered. Keep an eye on your inbox. If you didn't fill out the form at Top1Summit.com to get access to all of those videos for free, this is your last chance. You'll need to do that before December 31st. After that, they'll be going up behind a paywall. That said if you're listening to this in 2023 and beyond. You can get a couple of access codes to individual videos by joining our mailing list at top1.fm. That's T-O-P the number 1 dot FM, and the link to the summit page is available there as well. Hit pause and do that now if you haven't already! Now, if you're looking to set yourself up for a super solid 2023 I've got an incredible offer for

Thank you so much for listening and subscribing to the podcast. Rather than just skipping this week I thought I'd record a short update for you to share what's going on and what you can expect over the course of the next few weeks. Not everyone knows that all of this Sales Success stuff, this podcast, the Daily Sales Tips podcast, the Sales Success Summit, the books, and everything else is actually one big side hustle. Like many of you, I'm a quota-carrying sales professional, and while I'm well ahead of plan for the year I've still got quite a bit of pipeline to work through in these next 4 weeks before Christmas, as well as a lot of planning and prep to do to make sure that I'm all set for a successful 2023 as well. If I'm really honest I'm also working through a bit of burnout having essentially worked 2 full-time jobs for the last 6 years! So I'm going to intentionally take my foot off of the gas with this podcast for the next few weeks, at least on the public side. I will be leaning into the paid Sales S

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I’ve got maybe the most unique share yet. Right after the Sales Success Summit in October my pipeline of tips for the Daily Sales Tips podcast was running quite low, so I asked some core members of the Sales Success Community to contribute some tips. Now if you’re a regular listener to that show, you may have heard a couple of these ideas from Jacquelyn Nicholson and Mike Simmons but the raw unedited version was so much fun I thought I’d just share the whole thing here. I’m going to have my audio editor make a few minor tweaks based on his judgement to clean up a couple of transitions, but other than that we’re going to keep it pretty raw and if you click over to top1.fm/JM for Jacquelyn/Mike, we’re going to include the full unedited video. Here they are, Enjoy!

Tim Zielinski is the RVP of Strategic Acquisition Sales at Dynatrace & the author of Sell with Swagger: The Quick-Hit Guide to Crushing Your Quota. Tim joins the show to share his career path from Java developer to SaaS leader and author. A lifelong individual contributor who has consistently crushed quota, Tim never thought he would end up in a management/leadership position. That is until he was given an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up. Tim is a consummate professional whose technical capability and focus on clients’ needs make him a stand out in his field.

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories podcast I’ve got the first of a whole series of hallway conversations that Jeff Bajorek recorded at the Sales Success Summit. This first one is with Ian Koniak who opened up this year’s Summit with what turned out to be the top-rated presentation. We’re still working on editing those presentations, but to get access to them for free when they’re ready thanks to Outreach, Gong, and Sales Hacker, just click over to Top1Summit.com and fill out the form. Here’s Jeff and Ian:

Andrew Claus is a Strategic Channel Manager and, through his partnership co-selling efforts, is the top-producing individual contributor at Kixie, the leading sales engagement platform that boosts sales team performance with ultra-reliable, easily automated calling and texting for Hubspot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and other leading CRMs. Andrew is passionate about helping companies reach and break through their next level of success. His background is truly unique, with experience as a professional ballet dancer and actor that lead to a sales career working with all sizes of businesses, from startups to enterprise companies. Andrew’s latest passion has been in the SaaS field as he co-founded his own FinTech business in 2019 and experienced and learned all aspects of building a company from scratch. 

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories Podcast, Jeff Bajorek is back with Scott Ingram to debrief the Sales Success Summit. To learn more about what’s coming in 2023 and to get involved in the community, click over to top1.fm/2023 for details.  

Make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you don’t miss my follow-up interview with Jason. You’ll also find an interview with a top channel partner seller coming soon as well. As for the Summit, it was our best one yet, again. The first survey question I asked was: Was this the best sales event you’ve ever attended? 91% said yes, and 100% of those that said No still gave it 5 stars. To learn more about what’s coming in 2023 and to get involved in the community, click over to top1.fm/2023 for details.

Jeff Bajorek is taking over the Sales Success Stories Podcast during the 2022 Sales Success Summit.  

In today’s bonus episode of the Sales Success Stories Podcast, I’ve got something unique for you. This is an episode that Carson Heady shared on his own Salesman on Fire podcast where he talked through some of the ins and out of both creating and working through a 9-Figure deal. I asked him if I could share this with you here, because there are so many great insights within this particular Sales Success Story. I’ll also mention this again at the end, but if you’d like to listen to my original conversation with Carson here on this podcast you’ll want to go back and look for episode 54 OR you can just point your browser at top1.fm/54 and that’ll take you straight there.

In today’s special BONUS episode, Scott and Lisa share in a rich and engaging discussion on fostering the growth of your sales career. Lisa expounds on the dangers of having unattainable quotas set forth by your manager, the power that your frontline manager has over your ability to succeed as a sales professional, and the importance of focusing on internal relationship building. Scott shares some personal examples of how either he or friends of his have navigated the complex challenges that a career in Sales can often bring. Lisa speaks to how long it should take to get to a level of competence within a new organization and the ability to recognize the right path for you.

Until Tom Barnes very recently stepped into a new Head of Sales role at Praxis Labs, he was the number one Enterprise Sales Director at Humu, an organization with a mission to make work better with science and machine learning. Tom has the privilege of leading the go-to-market function and leads Praxis Labs global growth strategy to help organizations improve equity and inclusion in the workplace. As Head of Sales, he is building the Praxis Labs sales machine by bringing business impact to Praxis Labs customers. He brings a wealth of experience from the Employee Experience and L&D space and was an integral part of driving 3 early-stage pre-IPO organizations through their successful IPOs..

I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly on the lookout for every possible competitive advantage I can find to try to improve myself and my results. It’s a huge reason why I started this show. Selfishly it allows me to build relationships with and learn from the best of the best in sales today. Unselfishly I record those conversations so you can listen in and learn alongside me. In addition to listening to these stories and gleaning the insights from top performers, one of the most powerful performance enhancers I’ve found isn’t illegal or even unethical. I think of them as Performance Enhancing Events Of course, I’m talking about the Sales Success Summit where I’m able to bring many of these top performers who you’ve heard on this show together so that you too can meet them, talk with them and learn from them. The most fun part is that they’re just engaged as you are, because they’re taking advantage of the opportunity to learn and network to further improve their own results.