This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast features your host, Nigel Green. He discusses the top 3 biggest mistakes that sales leaders make when hiring salespeople. A mistake in hiring produces not only lackluster results for the company but also drains resources that could eventually cost you your job. Nigel introduces his 6-step process for hiring that he is excited to share with sales leaders today!

QUOTES

04:32 Mistake number 1: Hiring without doing a job analysis: "You go post it and you immediately start interviewing candidates. Well, the problem with that is you don't really know at this point what you need. And so, most sales leaders get this wrong because they jump to interviewing without doing a job analysis."

05:49 Mistake number 2: Interviewing based on intuition and a lack of process: "You need a defined set of steps in the interview process. You ever heard a candidate say to you, well, mister hiring manager, what's the next step? And if you can't clearly articulate not only the next step but the rest of the steps to the candidate, you run the risk of one, not running a very good process, but two, losing a candidate because it doesn't appear to the candidate as if you know what you're looking for." 

09:13 Mistake number 3: Hiring based on biases: "Because you played a college sport, just a college sport, doesn't mean that you're going to be more successful in selling, or less successful in selling." 

More about Nigel Green

Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/

Do you want a best-in-class sales team? In my book, you learn how seven timeless principles can 2-3X your revenue and turn your sales team into a sales machine. Get it now: https://www.therevenueharvest.com

Website: https://www.NigelGreen.co

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit https://www.therevenueharvest.com/ or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast with Nigel Green features Ross Pomerantz, Founder and Chief Corpitalist at Corp Capital. Nigel uses satire in his content to comment on the prevalent bro culture of sales. He observes a need for change, from salespeople's motivations at the bottom to the hiring practices of sales leadership at the top. Ross envisions his company as the place to connect founders and CEOs who crush sales to the most talented salespeople who will continue this trend of success.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Fighting against toxic sales bro cultures with satire
• Self-awareness to integrate diversity needs with sales leadership
• Connecting rockstar CEOs with rockstar salespeople
• Hire athletes and people who grind for sales roles

QUOTES

16:30 Ross: "As a salesperson, I want to be sold by a CEO. I want to work for someone who can sell. Especially if you're going to join an early-stage company, the top salespeople, the early salespeople, they're all founders. If you can't sell me on your company, on your vision, how am I going to go do that when it's your thing? It's your baby."

18:54 Ross: "I love sales because it is the great equalizer. I just do think that there are people that are better suited mentally to handle the task of sales, of which there is a lot of mental weight that goes into it. The wait room at 4 AM. You got to go hit someone. Someone's going to hit you on every single play."

19:23  Ross: "I would venture to guess there's studies that would say athletes are better suited for a sales role. But I think there's a lot of things that people overlook. I do think the service industry, I think retail. People who grind. That's who you want."

You can connect with Ross in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corporatebro/
• Bravado: https://bravado.co/?mrk=8fccfb85
• Website: https://corporatebro.com/

More about Nigel Green

Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/

Do you want a best-in-class sales team? In my book, you learn how seven timeless principles can 2-3X your revenue and turn your sales team into a sales machine. Get it now: https://www.therevenueharvest.com

Website: https://www.NigelGreen.co

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit

 https://www.therevenueharvest.com/

 or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast with Nigel Green features Tom Critchlow, a strategy consultant focusing on media companies and early to mid-stage startups with expertise in product and marketing strategy. He discusses how dashboards must treat input and output metrics differently and the importance of being transparent. He also talks about cleaning up data to display accurate data on the dashboard. Speaking to the c-suite and mid-management, he suggests strengthening your executive presence by taking a collaborative approach to diagnosing internal and external factors that affect output. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Measure input and output metrics differently on the dashboard
• Diagnose internal processes and external pressures
• Present metrics your CEO wants to see
• Executive presence: Clean your data and be transparent in presenting it

QUOTES

07:15  Tom: "What are the activities and kind of projects and things that we're doing now that will move the needle tomorrow? And this is what Amazon calls input metrics. So these are things that are typically more directly under our control. Sales and revenue and things like that are not directly under our control. We work on projects that will hopefully move the needle on those and hopefully influence them."

08:22 Tom: "Most dashboards will be better off really focusing in on a small number of output metrics, and to each of those, two to three input metrics."

16:23 Tom: "A great dashboard will actually expose the data source to you. So a great dashboard will not only tell you this is the number of leads this month or the number of calls made or the number of pieces of content published or something like that, but they will actually connect that to a kind of you can click a thing and it will show you the data."

26:48 Tom: For us, SEO is three things. It's good product pages, it's producing more content every month, and it's doing good visual PR. You have to boil it down so that the CEO is like, 'Great, I understand what you need. There are three levers that we can pull and I can see that the product or image is not pulling that lever hard enough."

You can connect with Tom in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomcritchlow/
• SEO MBA website: https://seomba.com/
• Website: https://tomcritchlow.com/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tomcritchlow

More about Nigel Green

Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/

Do you want a best-in-class sales team? In my book, you learn how seven timeless principles can 2-3X your revenue and turn your sales team into a sales machine. Get it now: https://www.therevenueharvest.com

Website: https://www.NigelGreen.co

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit https://www.therevenueharvest.com/ or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast with Nigel Green features Maria Boulden, Vice President and Executive Partner at Gartner. A majority of people now want a digital and seller-free experience during their buying process. This does not mean that sellers are obsolete, rather it indicates that sellers must adapt and meet buyers where they are to sell successfully. This could mean providing information to buyers and knowing the points when buyers would actually prefer to engage a human. Maria emphasizes buyers' behavior of researching on their own to reach a decision and leading them to a decision rather than selling to them.

HIGHLIGHTS

• A trend of preferring no engagement with sellers in a buying process
• Know how your targets want to buy
• Forecasting with machine learning and using verifiers 
• Offer freemium and demos that don’t involve phone calls

QUOTES

06:46 Maria: "The primary trend I would point to is well before the pandemic, we saw massive increases in online learning. Well before the pandemic, we saw a growing preference for a rep-free sale. And well before the pandemic, we saw the beginning of a disconnect between how buyers wanted to buy and how sellers were stuck selling to the point where a buyer would disproportionately reward a better customer experience even if the product or service was inferior."

18:25 Maria: "The ones who think they've seen it before, the ones who think it's just going to snap right back to the way it used to be, and all I have to do is have one good dinner or just put me in front of the customer again, they're shutting down to the changes that the world has already made."

26:57 Maria: "The most successful sales lead to what you're trying to sell instead of leading with what you're trying to sell. People love to buy. They hate to be sold."

You can connect with Maria in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-boulden-8a778b11/
• Website: https://www.gartner.com/en

More about Nigel Green

• Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/
• Check out my book: www.therevenueharvest.com
• Do you want a best-in-class sales team? In this book, you learn how seven timeless principles can 2-3X your revenue and turn your sales team into a sales machine.
• Website: www.NigelGreen.co

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit http://www.therevenueharvest.com/ or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast with Nigel Green features Alex Griffin, Director of Global Sales Development at Segment. She discusses how they perform their outbound sales and the strategies they use to qualify opportunities and support their SDRs.

Alex shares that cold calling is still the fastest and most effective way to connect with people and that more sellers should be leaving voicemails. She also talks about growing leaders from the ranks of SDRs and what aspiring leaders have to look out for to help ensure their growth in this new role.

You can connect with Alex in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-griffin-8123078a/

Check out Alex's recommendation on Becc Holland below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beccholland-flipthescript/
• Website: https://www.flipthescript.co/

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit http://www.therevenueharvest.com/ or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

More about Nigel Green

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/
  Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership
• Check out my book: www.therevenueharvest.com
  Do you want a best-in-class sales team? In this book you learn how seven timeless principles can 2-3X your revenue and turn your sales team into a sales machine.
• Website: www.Nigelgreen.co

HIGHLIGHTS

• Analyzing SDR's qualified opportunities and conversion
• SDR's autonomy, activity benchmarks, and creativity
• Tip: Learn to leave voicemails
• Coaching is personalized and about good listening
• Preparing SDRs for management roles

QUOTES

Alex: "There's so many content, videos, and articles out there about just personalization. It really is key these days when it comes to outbound. You cannot just do generic messaging and spray and pray. You have to be personalized. You have to know who is it that you're sending this email to, what do they care about, and what company are they with."

Alex: "If you're going to pick up the phone and call people and you expect them to give you time, you better know how exactly you're going to be providing them value when you get the chance to talk with them."

Alex: "We pull our SDRs together weekly to role play and we ask them to practice so that they can be prepared, and so now we're doing that at the management level too. We're going to be coming together and doing exercises where we do have an email exercise and they go into breakout rooms and they practice giving feedback on an email"

This episode of the Revenue Harvest Podcast with Nigel Green features Lisa Earle Mcleod, author of Selling with Noble Purpose. Leaders must point toward a noble purpose as their true north because the numbers are lagging indicators of the beliefs and behaviors of the sales team.

The great thing is that you can train for belief and behavior. When people have a strong purpose about how to help others, it stops being about themselves and about others. It is from this core that you can build upon sales skills.

To create a reorientation in your salespeople, start by asking the question, "how will this customer be different after doing business with you?" Finding the answer to this question requires sellers to look deeper and realize that making it about others creates true impact which translates to even better numbers.

You can connect with Lisa in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaearlemcleod/
• Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Noble-Purpose-Earle-McLeod/dp/8126565144
• Purpose-Driven Sales: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/purpose-driven-sales
• Website: https://www.mcleodandmore.com/

To hear more episodes of The Revenue Harvest Podcast, you can visit http://www.therevenueharvest.com/ or listen to major podcasting platforms such as Apple, Google, Spotify, etc.

P.S. Here are 2 ways I can help you:

1) Check out my book: www.therevenueharvest.com

2) Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily about sales leadership: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Teach a noble purpose to make great sellers
• Passion and purpose are two different things
• Ask 'how will this customer be different after doing business with us?'
• Purpose-driven sales: More effective and more job satisfaction
• Share customer impact stories

QUOTES

Lisa: "What we found over time, that first study was the tipping point. This noble purpose is the differentiator for top performers. But, what we found over time, is it can actually be taught to everyone else."

Lisa: "You're looking for that wonderful mix of people who are interested in you, to become sellers for you, because they think oh, this really does make a difference, and also, as leaders, you've got to articulate it and reinforce it on a daily basis."

Lisa: "Sellers with a sense of purpose bigger than money have greater resilience and greater tenacity. And here's why: we human beings are at our best when we know someone else is counting on us."

Lisa: "A customer impact story is different. It's not about your offering and your seller is not the hero. A customer impact story is about how you made a difference in the life of a customer."

HIGHLIGHTS 

• The secret society for success measures success by assists
• Givers and takers: Being other-focused and generous
• The spotlight mindset and chasing after the credit
• The joy is in the journey, not the result

QUOTES

Tim: "There's a different scoreboard that the secret society operates under. We define success as success in the assists. Success in helping somebody else win. So there's some foundational principles; one of those is that idea of helping others win."

Tim: "What if success isn't just your revenue numbers at the end of the month? What if it had something to do with the success that you were able to help unlock or attain for your client? So it's just going one step further." 

Tim: "Givers are a relatively rare breed. They tilt reciprocity in the other direction, preferring to give more than they get. Whereas takers tend to be self-focused, evaluating what other people can offer them. Givers are other-focused, paying more attention to what other people need from them. Their preferences aren't about money."

Tim: "There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit. And, for so many of us, we just want the credit. We want people to see us and recognize us, to look at us as successful as a salesperson or a team leader."

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Lead with empathy: Warmth over power
• Sales as a mom: To-do lists, research, and time management
• Quiara's routine and creating authentic connections
• Connect with stories to hire the best sellers

QUOTES

Quiara: "What are we measuring each other based off of and how do we want to be perceived? Those things really matter and connection is really what matters so much in sales. We do it all the time with clients. If we don't make that connection, we don't get the trust, we probably don't get the deal."

Quiara: "The more honest you can be with people and upfront and create that connection and that vulnerability, the better they're going to trust you. The more human you are, the more human they can be. And now you have that connection."

Quiara: "We have gotten over a lot of these uncomfortable things and we lean into them instead of leaning away from them. When you lean into someone's uncomfortable moment, you created trust. When you lean away, you just created a wedge."

Quiara: "I think that, if we gave people a shot for who they were, what their background is versus what their resume says in terms of jobs they've held, we'd have a lot more top sellers because a lot of the people who are on my team and other teams came from strange places and they're the ones crushing it."