This episode kicks off a 4-pack series on the topic of differentiation. You aren’t different because YOU say so… the only perspective that matters is that of your prospect. Tune in to discover how you can differentiate beyond just having a better product or service.

If you are planning to hire salespeople or you want to zero in and focus on developing the team you have… or you are a go-getter who is always on a quest for professional growth and self improvement… you won’t want to miss a second of this week’s show! Merit Kahn, Sales Technique Expert and Julie Holmes, Sales Tech Guru talk with Michael Vodianoi, Research Scientist with Multi-Health Systems (MHS). MHS is a leading publisher of scientifically validated assessments for more than 30 years with products sold in more than 75 countries and translated into over 50 languages.

Michael will share
– Eight competencies you should look for when hiring salespeople
– Top five Emotional Intelligence attributes for top performing sales professionals
– Why validated research matters more than your gut
– How to best use assessments to hire and develop talent

Setting sales targets are about so much more than just hitting those numbers. In this episode, Merit gives us all some top tips on how to create and expose those areas and pathways in our working processes that give us the biggest breakthroughs.

Do you get overwhelmed with your tech? You might think the way to solve this is to download more tools to fix the problem. But most of the time, the exact opposite is true! In this episode, Julie talks tells you how to get your tech cleaned up and set up!

Season 2 of The Smarter Sales Show is packed with content to get you started toward Virtual Sales Mastery! Get a fresh new perspective on how to grow sales with less stress. Merit shares The Merit Method Big Three areas that all high performing sales professionals have in balance. Julie walks you through her Tech It Up Trio, the three things you can do right now to get a solid handle on organizing your technology.

SHOWNOTES:
After eleven episodes of The Smarter Sales Show you’ll hear our all time favorite tips, both tech and technique to sell more and stress less. This episode is our version of The Smarter Sales Show Greatest Hits!
 
Merit’s Top Three Faves:

Always ask “Is there an app for that that will make my life easier?”

From episode 4: Differentiation

Video emails with analytics so you can express yourself with tonality and personality and you will know when people watch your message.

From episode 9: Love Them More to Sell Them More

Getting to real emotional pain using a series of pain questions designed to go from surface interest to real pain.  

Download the Pain Question Series HERE. 

Julie’s Top Three Faves:

Always ask “Are you open to…”

From episode 2: The language of referrals.

“I don’t want you to refer me, I want you to introduce me to people who are open to hearing from me.”

“I can’t promise you’ll get the same results we’ve gotten, but it’s worth a conversation.”

Tracking documents you send so you are notified when someone opens a proposal, handout, follow up reports, etc. Then I know when to call them.

 
Smarter Sales Soundbites:
“Technique without tech just takes too long. Tech without technique leads to lost opportunity.”
 
Cool Tools Referenced in this Episode:

Download the Pain Question Series HERE

Persuasive Proposal Pack HERE

Just Add Words Template Pack HERE

 
Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/
 
Our Websites:
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The top performers in every field have coaches who have helped them get to the top. Learn how to give coaching, how you can use tech as a coaching tool and why coaching is important to your success. You will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode…

Technique Tips from Merit:
·     Getting the right coach for the right application is job number one.
·     The questions that your coach will ask should be questions that open up your ideas or create new possibilities that you may not have seen before.
·     Be specific with your coach about what you’re looking to accomplish in that coaching relationship.
·     In the real world, things are happening very fast and we don’t have the luxury of time trying to figure this out on our own, so Prescriptive Coaching is a great solution.
·     When practicing a technique with someone you are coaching, always demonstrate the technique first.
·     The Commend and Recommend technique: Find something to commend and something else you can recommend for their improvement.
·     Before I tell you what I heard in that practice session, tell me, what you think you did really well in that practice session and where do you think you could make an improvement?

Technology Tips from Julie:
·     When you are give feedback on anything, be as specific as possible.
·     Don’t just say, “you did a good job with dinner” instead, say, “Wow. I really love that you actually set the table and really thought about how the food was going to look on the plate.”
·     Tech can help you capture information for coaching sessions
·     Tech can help you scale that information and aggregate that information, not only so that you can provide better feedback one on one, but also so that you can provide almost globalized coaching.
·     Use technology and tools to record sales conversations and analyze them.
·     Analyze the language that’s being used and the tone of the call. The system can listen to the words and the cadence and the speed. And if you combine that with your sales analytics, it can tell you the questions that actually generate the best results.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:
“Sometimes we get so caught up in the way the world looks from our chair that we just forget to have a look around us and to see the world from a different perspective or to even see our own behavior and own strategies from a different perspective.”

“Coaching can be one minute of genius that you share with someone, or it could be an actual program that spans months or years of dedicated and specific coaching protocols.”

“A coach is going to see something that might be right in front of you the whole time and invisible to you.”

“A good coach doesn’t want to work with you forever. I want you to outgrow me. I want you to get my lessons so deep in your bones that you don’t remember how you had a sales call any other way. And then I know you don’t need me anymore.”
“Merit, you’re like Mary Poppins for sales.”

Referenced in this Episode:
Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Original-RevisedTM/dp/0990797600/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2DV7YT751YI1R&dchild=1&keywords=think+and+grow+rich&qid=1595391242&sprefix=think%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-5
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk by  Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
https://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Kids-Will-Listen/dp/1451663889/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2F71LCKZZ6X22&dchild=1&keywords=how+to+talk+so+kids+will+listen+book&psr=EY17&qid=1595391285&s=todays-deals&sprefix=how+to+talk+so+ki%2Ctodays-deals%2C178&sr=8-1

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Our Websites:
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show Notes:

There’s a difference between what somebody has set aside in their budget for a solution to their problem and what the pain really costs them and what it’s worth to them to solve the problem.
In this episode you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode…

Technique Tips from Merit:

Ask questions about the outcome they are really looking to achieve, because that outcome often has multiple solutions and those solutions can be paid for with different budgets.

Make sure I’m solving the real problem, not just that surface level problem.

People will find incredible ways to fund projects that they’re personally committed to.

When a prospect doesn’t really understand their own pain, then any investment will seem like too much. If there is no pain, then no amount of investment is worth it.

Pain multiplier: Is that a one-time cost or do you experience that cost over and over and over again?

Sell them what they want and then make sure that you’re setting it up so that tomorrow you can give them what they need.

Technology Tips from Julie:

Understand how to use Excel or other spreadsheet applications to analyze your pricing.

Before you build anything, go out and test the market test whether or not anybody clicks on a particular price.

Use a profit prediction tool to help you understand the potential of various pricing models.

If you know your numbers and you know your conversion rates, you can start to really look at your pricing and your profit to determine if your numbers are set the right way.

You need to set some numeric expectations with your clients. when you understand what their problem is and their pain and then you talk about how you’re going to help them solve that pain, and ask, “How are you going to quantify that that pain was solved?”

Check out:
GERU – Profit Prediction Tool

Smarter Sales Soundbites:
“There’s a difference between what somebody has set aside in their budget for this solution and what the pain really costs them or what it’s worth for them to solve.”

“We undersell our own solutions and go for that quick sale to our detriment.”

“Think from your clients perspective, are you really solving the real problem with this solution or are you leaving some aspect of the solution on the table because we’re afraid to ask for a certain amount of money?”

“The real sales solution is a combination of having your mindset it right, getting the mechanics of selling correct and also being in consistent motion.”

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Our Websites:
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SHOWNOTES:
This episode is about how to find out what the pain is that people are willing to pay to fix. Learn what people really buy, the questions to ask them so that they discover for themselves they need what you have and some amazing tech tools to keep you organized and on track. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode…

Technique Tips from Merit:
·     The way that we buy impacts the way that we sell.
·     Ask questions so people discover for themselves that they have pain.
·     People make decisions intellectually, but they buy emotionally.
·      Say what you do in a way that hits those emotional hot buttons for them.
·     The multiplier question: Is this a onetime cost or do you pay this over and over and over again because this problem is still in place?
·      
Technology Tips from Julie:
·     Tech enables us to capture both qualitative and quantitative evidence about pain.
·     Strategy 1: Do market research on social media to learn what people are complaining about.
·     Strategy 2: Ask Google what people are searching for to find solutions to problems.
·     Strategy 3: Survey your existing audience to help me understand which messages resonate and which pain they’re experiencing.
·     The big thing that tech can do is it can help you to find what people are talking about and the words that they want to hear.

Smarter Sales Soundbites:
“People will do more to to avoid pain than gain pleasure.”

“You didn’t walk in your doctor’s office because you were interested in her solutions to solve your heel pain, you walked in because you had an emotion that finally got you into that doctor’s office. Buying is emotional.”

“Take the things we find through tech like, here’s the top 10 reasons that people go and find this solution and then say, what we hear most often is that people are frustrated by this. Is that true for you?”

Referenced in this Episode:
Listen to what the market is saying about you and your competition.
Brand Mentions
Research what the market is searching for when it comes to your product, service or industry.
AnswerThePublic.com
Ask your market what matters to them.
Zoho Survey
Survey Monkey
Merit’s download: Pain Questions

Find us at:
www.thesmartersalesshow.com
 
Contact us at:
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com

Connect with us on LinkedIn…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/

Our Websites:
https://julieholmes.com/
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like it or not, we are all in sales… so the question is how do you serve better in order to sell more? How do you grow the lifetime value of a client? You will love this episode because increasing existing business is the easiest way to grow. In each episode of The Smarter Sales Show, you will get tech and technique to sell more and stress less. Here are the highlights of this episode… 
 
Technique Tips from Merit: 

Serving clients well is really the key to growing sales. 

To grow your businesses with existing clients, first solve the problem they hired you to fix and then upsell additional offerings.  

If we’re not serving our clients, delivering on what we’ve initially promised, then there is nothing more they’re going to want to do with us. 

You don’t get any extra credit until the original job is done. 

  
Technology Tips from Julie: 

Customers that have exceptional salespeople are ten to fifteen times more likely to remain loyal. 

One of the challenges I would encourage everyone to take on is not only capturing what success looks like, but how will success be measured. 

Capture metrics in your CRM system, Excel, GoogleDocs or Office. 

If you don’t have your photo in your signature on your emails, go do that right now. 

Do more video messages, incorporate your humor and your personality into those messages. 

Smarter Sales Soundbites:  
“I want to solve the problem that you hired me to solve. And then if you’re open to it, I would like to have two other conversations with you. One about who else you might know that I would be able to help in similar way and also what else you and I might do together to expand on the solution that is now in place and delivering the result that I promised.” 
“70 percent of the time when a customer leaves an organization it is because they believe that they’ve had poor service and almost always that is attributed to the salesperson.” 
“One of the things that every customer needs once they’ve joined you is reinforcement that they have made a good decision. They’ve got to demonstrate that success, not just for them, but for us as well.” 
“Measure the indicators on the way to the results.” 
“Good customer service is just an integral part of being a professional salesperson.”  
 
Referenced in this Episode: 
Canva 
PowerPoint 
Dubb 
Loom 
BombBomb 
Myth Shift: Challenging The Truths That Sabotage Success by Merit Kahn (formerly Merit Gest) 
https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Shift-Challenging-Sabotage-Success/dp/0997646802 
 
Find us at: 
www.thesmartersalesshow.com 
  
Contact us at: 
hello@thesmartersalesshow.com 
 
Connect with us on LinkedIn… 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meritkahn/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejulieholmes/ 
 
Our Websites:  
https://julieholmes.com/ 
https://www.meritbasedbusiness.com/ 
 
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices