In this second of a two part episode of the Sales Empowerment podcast, our hosts Mike Miranda and Shawn Winters continue their conversation about some best practices for sales reps to make the most out of the unique opportunities present in sales conferences. With public events now becoming a part of society again, it’s best to ensure that your new sales reps are equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to take advantage of sales conferences. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Take note of people's badges
• Know who you're talking to, but don't just focus on the big players
• Have your go-to qualifying questions at the ready
• Make it easy for your reps and prospects to set a meeting
• You don't necessarily need to sponsor an event

QUOTES

Shawn on taking note of people's badges: "Try your best to talk to everybody, but you have to be thoughtful about, ‘okay is this a person a VP of engineering, or is this like an entry level software engineer that's probably not gonna run a big sales cycle.’"

Mike on maximizing your time in conferences: "For us, Shawn and I can attend events and most likely it's a salesperson representing these booths. And if there's a hundred booths, we can be having a hundred different conversations and probably find at least 5 to 10 of those companies are qualified and within our space and can be potential leads."

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

With public events now available after two years of sweeping lockdowns, sales conferences and trade shows are nowe once again a viable option for sales organizations looking to capitalize on face-to-face interactions.

In this episode of the Sales Empowerment podcast, our hosts Mike Miranda and Shawn Winters talk about the opportunities that conferences present for sales organizations, particularly for their younger sales reps to hone their pitch and networking skills, as well as gain leads that they can nurture later on. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• The different people you meet in conferences 
• Conferences are work events first
• Go to conferences to hone your pitch and networking game 
• Tactical tips to maximize your time in conference booths 
• Get your elevator pitch down and have an exit strategy

QUOTES

Mike on the mindset you should have on joining sales conferences: "I always thought of conferences as really an opportunity and kind of like a privilege. The company doesn't have to fly me to San Francisco, they don't have to put me up in a hotel and they don't have to pay for my meals while I'm there. It's a really cool opportunity to get in front of customers, to build qualified leads for yourself, for your team, and to really get a pulse on what's happening and how your product is resonating."

Shawn on adequately motivating your reps to work during conferences: "If you're not motivating your SDRs and your AEs or your solutions architects to actually go after business, it's like they're selling something that they're not going to get comp on and that's really tough. If they're going to have somebody go to these events, make sure that they're able to capitalize on a lot of the leads that they get."

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

In this episode of the Sales Empowerment podcast, Mike and Shawn continue their conversation with Andrew Kappel, SDR & GoToMarket Strategy Consultant for Skaled Consulting. 

Andrew offers several golden tips on leading your SDRs into success and achieving better outcomes. Instead of obsessing over the messaging, Andrew focuses on the sales list first to ensure that the ones you’re reaching out to are more likely to be interested in the first place. Andrew also specifies the most important metrics that you need to be looking into, to ensure that you’re optimizing your time and effort. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Most people will not like cold-calling, but you should 
• Imitate what is working, then innovate 
• The 4 key metrics that every executive needs to lead SDRs
• The messaging doesn't need to be perfect 
• Time is still the most important asset
• The best SDRs and BDRs don't book the most meetings 

QUOTES

Andrew's strategy for improving the performance of the whole team: "My management and leadership philosophy is to actually spend time with the highest performers, with the folks that are most curious, most resourceful, most creative, and make sure that we're removing obstacles, that we're trying out new stuff and we're making the best even better. And then we're documenting that and then we're helping to reuse those best practices to train and enable the broader team." 

Andrew on why you need to start with your sales list before messaging: The "To" is more important than the body of your email. And so that's why we start with the list of who you're targeting. Because it's about targeting the right persona, the trigger event, a new executive in the role, etc., with a relevant message and then teaching and enabling the SDR to become effective with the right value props and really just showing that curiosity." 

Why the best SDRs and BDRs don't necessarily have the most meetings booked: "Maybe a contrarian or atypical view that I've seen from experience is that the best BDRs and SDRs don't always have the highest output of their number of meetings on the books. Because they're focused on the bigger picture of advancing, of learning, developing, staying curious and then looking to do something else."

Connect with Andrew and his work via the links below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkappel/

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

In this episode of the Sales Empowerment podcast, Mike and Shawn talk to Andrew Kappel, SDR & GoToMarket Strategy Consultant for Skaled Consulting. 

Andrew talks about his work, and how he found success as a sales development representative, got promoted to account executive, and not doing very well as a result. Fortunately, he found his niche when he was tasked by his company to work with other B2B companies in designing and implementing modern SDR and GoToMarket strategies. Andrew talks about the most common issues that SDRs face, and the most urgent interventions that make the biggest impact in improving outcomes. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Know your product just well enough to sell it 
• Always be curious and resourceful 
• Do SDRs overcomplicate things?
• Phones are still the best way to establish a two-way connection
• Try to get the quick wins as soon as possible
• The importance of the feedback loop

QUOTES

The most important trait for sales reps, according to Andrew: "An important trait of SDRs and sales reps is being curious. Having that curiosity and resourcefulness to try to figure stuff out, to do some research."

How Andrew approaches clients: "When I'm working with clients and SDR teams, it's really great to break it down, the outbound process into target, channel, message, and then feedback loop."

Connect with Andrew and his work via the links below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewkappel/

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and so are the best sellers. Providing adequate training and support to your employees will not just help your company in achieving its revenue goals, you could also very well be nurturing the next generation of founders and sales leaders. In this episode of the Sales Empowerment podcast, Mike and Shawn continue their conversation about going above and beyond quota fulfillment, the power of listening, and the need for leaders to equip new sellers with more training and support. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Sellers who are good listeners are game changers 
• Some things you just need to know and should be muscle memory
• Practice is essential for sellers too
• There's more to selling than just crushing your quota
• Sales leader should equip their employees with the training and tools they need

QUOTES

Shawn on the power of genuinely listening to your prospect: So often, as salespeople, we're always ready to say the next thing, and we're missing the genuine connection with just having an interaction with somebody. And typically, what I've seen is as soon as we do that, as soon as we're able to just open up and actually listen to somebody and pay attention, it's just a game changer. 

Shawn on the need for leaders to give their employees adequate training: "You're hiring these SDRs and these AEs and you're expecting them to get live practice with real prospects and like, where's their confidence level at? How are they feeling after they get rejected because they don't know what to say? It takes more mental toughness than most people have to get pas that. Why are we setting up our reps for failure?"

Mike on setting up your employees for success: "When you get someone that's fresh and they're excited and they're optimistic about what they can do at this company, and they just get crushed and there's no infrastructure. There's nothing to really help them except some of these videos that are scripted and they're not really how calls go. It's tough. I think that there's people out there that are gonna go on to be incredible ICs, incredible leaders, incredible founders. And I think we can save a lot more of them by setting up a good foundation for them."

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

As sellers, we’re naturally concerned with our quotas. Unfortunately, the quota can be overpowering to the point of tunnel vision, which ultimately results in burnout. In this episode of the Sales Empowerment Podcast, Mike and Shawn talk about looking past our quotas and taking the time to appreciate everything else: the skills that we learn, the relationships we developed, and the character that we built while doing the work. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Your quota is important, but it's not everything
• Have a roadmap of where you want to go 
• The skills you learn in sales can help you in other areas 
• Focus on developing the skill set and resiliency 
• Mindset is everything 

QUOTES

Shawn on looking past quota and appreciating everything else: "There's so much more out there that we're learning, and if we can just take a step outside our skin and look at ourselves and be like, 'Oh there I learned this, I met that person, I had a really great conversation with them,' like that made me feel a lot more whole, and empowered myself to be more than a salesperson."

Mike on having the discipline to persevere, even in the face of rejection: "I think it's important to understand when you feel discouraged, to try to think about this broader perspective that you're developing the skill set. Like think about going to the gym, you're not always getting up, super psyched and super stoked, you might just not want to go that day. It's the discipline of, 'Hey the longer term goal, this is important to me, this is why I want to get out there.'"

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

A lot of people look at the sales and business development representative role as an entry-level position; a stepping stone towards more senior roles like the account executive. While this impression is not without merit, this characterization barely scratches the surface. In this episode of the Sales Empowerment Podcast, our hosts Shawn and Mike talk to Emilio Mendoza , Sr. BDR Manager at Sigma Computing. Emilio talks about the world of BDRs, his approach to coaching his team of 11, and the various challenges that come with the role. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Always know your customer and their problems first
• How to build trust and rapport over cold calls
• Sell the value, not the solution
• Utilize cold-call frameworks and know your personas
• Frameworks vs Scripts 
• People love correcting people 
• Mock sessions are critical to mastering the process
• Sales reps need to be practicing like kids learning a sport 

QUOTES

Emilio’s take on sales empowerment: "When it comes to sales empowerment, my philosophy is don't always talk about what you do at Sigma. Don't always talk about your product to the prospect. You don't do anyone a service of showing up to the call thinking you know their pains and challenges before even asking what they are focused on, what are their priorities, what are their initiatives."

Emilio describes his approach to coaching his SDRs/BDRs: "If someone is very unorthodox, uses their humor, uses their behavior to talk to prospects, talk to personas, you can't always replicate that across a team, right? Everyone has their own nuances. Everyone has their own behaviors on cold calls. It's really understanding what they do great, and then putting my own spin on it and helping them close along the way."

Emilio on the importance of mock sessions: "A lot of leaders say, ‘All right.Go and make a hundred cold calls. Get the kinks out. Get the vibes going. Go and get the juices going.’ That's like telling Shawn, like a BDR, hey Shawn go make a hundred bad calls. You're going to probably get a lot of objections, fall on your face a few times but hey this is all learning."

Connect with Emilio on the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio-mendoza-98b19880/

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/

Every seller knows that discovery is half the battle of every sales deal. The discovery call is where you establish rapport, discover opportunities to bring value and solve at least some of their problems. Undoubtedly, this is easier said than done, so in this episode of the Sales Empowerment Podcast, our hosts Mike Miranda and Shawn Winters talk about the biggest stumbling blocks that sellers encounter during discovery calls and offer some advice on how to overcome them. Long story short, introducing a little vulnerability goes a long way in breaking the ice between you and your prospect, opening the way for some genuine and honest conversations. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Never neglect discovery
• Establish a structure but don't stifle the conversation 
• Take the initiative, but follow the prospect's lead
• Encourage rapport and break down walls by asking for help
• Your ability to relate is how you build relationships 

QUOTES

Mike on the importance of preparation before a discovery call: "What's really helped me in the past is the preparation. It's hard to ask great questions if you're not actively thinking about who it is that you're gonna be talking to, what it is that you think might be valuable."

Shawn on the challenge with discovery: "It takes a little bit to get through the walls that we put up as human beings because ultimately there could be some insecurities, there could be a little ego involved, there could be all those things that prevent human beings connecting in those discovery calls."

Shawn on breaking down walls by asking for help: "When it comes to sales and building relationships with people, when you ask the other people for help, when you say hey, I'd really like your help on this, human beings are naturally inclined to want to help you. When you're saying, 'Hey, would you please help me with this?', what you're really saying is, 'I am not sufficient in a certain area. I am willing to put myself on this ledge. I'm willing to be embarrassed by not knowing all of your thoughts and ideas, and I want your insight.'"

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/