E62 - Information is King with Joe Benjamin

Our guest on this episode is Jon Ferrara. Jon is the Founder and CEO at Nimble and was the Co-founder at Goldmine, one of the early CRM applications for sales. It's safe to say that Jon is a true pioneer in the CRM space.   Jon and I start the conversation discussing the origins of sales enablement and sales force automation. Jon believes to be a successful seller today you must build your brand and develop relationships through different channels and touch points. In addition to email and phone you need to connect and engage with your audience through the different social channels. He also shares his secret to increasing his search results on google and that is to build your own Wikipedia page. Who would have thought? Enjoy the conversation.    Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.

Our guest on this episode is Jeremey Donovan. Jeremey is the SVP of Sales Strategy at Salesloft which is one of the premier sales enablement platforms in the market.    Prospecting is hard, prospecting without data is even harder and can lead to decreased results. Jeremey and I discuss the importance to using data when crafting your messages and outreach. For example, did you know that using the word “imagine” in an email will decrease reply rates by 41%? Jeremey shares other interesting data points to increase your chances of starting a conversation with a new prospect. Enjoy the conversation.    Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.

Our guest on this episode is Patrick Boucousis. Patrick is a High-Performance B2B Sales Coach and Trainer at The Sales Natural. He is also my first guest from Australia.   Patrick and I start the conversation discussing how to gain the trust of the buyer. Patrick shares with us his approach to using natural conversations to build the relationships and buyer trust. We then explore to the importance of the discovery call and understanding what the buyer values. To successfully and consistently closing deals you need to sell based on what the buyer values; be it, service, price, ease of implementation etc. Enjoy the conversation.      Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.

Our guest on this episode is Jason Cutter. Jason is the Founder of Cutter Consulting Group and the author of Selling with Authentic Persuasion.    Jason and I start the podcast discussing his new book. The book focuses on being authentic when selling by being self aware and understanding the way that you sell. It’s not about how you would like to be sold to, its about how your customers would like to be sold to.    Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.

Our guest on this episode is Steve Pacinelli. Steve is the CMO at BombBomb. BombBomb helps build better business relationships with video messaging.   Steve and I discuss the value of video vs. email and voice. Its important to note that video is 3 dimensional you have, 1) body language, 2) tone and 3) word selection. Where email is just word selection and voice is tone and word selection. So if you want to be more personal start using video for intros, follow up or whenever the message would be better served one to one. There are a lot of great tidbits in this episode so take a listen and enjoy.    But before we jump into the episode I would like to let you know that T-REX has gone virtual for 2020!  Like many other in-person events we had to move online to make it happen. Join us for the first ever T-REX Virtual Conference Extravaganza. This will be a 3 hours virtual conference with 4 great speakers and lots of key sales takeaways. See the podcast notes for details on our agenda and tickets or go to trexsummit.com.    Thanks for tuning in. This is Best Selling.

Our guest on this episode is Gessie Schechinger. Gessie is the VP of Sales at Oncourse which is a sales engagement platform for sellers.   Much of the focus of this episode is on how to effectively take advantage of LinkedIn for starting relationships and developing new opportunities. Gessie shares lots of great advise like; how to get your invites accepted, how to use hashtags to post and find relevant connections, and how to ensure your profile is updated for success.    But before we get started I wanted to let you know that T-REX has gone virtual for 2020. Join us on September 16th for the first ever T-REX Virtual Conference Extravaganza. This will be a 3 hours virtual conference with 4 great speakers including Cal Fussman, Brad McGinity CRO at 15five, Erica Schultz CMO Rain Group and Latane Conant CMO at 6sense. See the podcast notes for details on our the agenda and tickets or go to trexsummit.com.   

Our guest on this episode is Ben Cohen. Ben is the Head of Sales Excellence and Marketing, North and South America at Hella which is global automotive manufacturer based out of Germany.    Ben and I tackle two big topics during the podcast. First we discuss getting back to good messaging and how to solve your customer’s problems, establishing USPs, and thinking creatively. Then we dive into the sale enablement tech stack discussing which tools are essential and which are marginal at best.    But before we jump into the episode I would like to let you know that T-REX has gone virtual for 2020!  Like many other in-person events we had to move online to make it happen. Join us for the first ever T-REX Virtual Conference Extravaganza. This will be a 3 hours virtual conference with 4 great speakers and lots of key sales takeaways. For details on our agenda and tickets or go to trexsummit.com.   

Our guest on this episode is Jeb Blount. Jeb is the CEO of Sales Gravy, and author of 12 books including Virtual Selling and Objections. Jeb is also a renown sales speaker and sales acceleration specialist.    Jeb and I start podcast talking about virtual selling which has always been relevant but certainly more so now that most sellers and buyers are working from home. There is no substitute for face to face but we can make video selling more effective. Jeb provides some best practices around video setup and presentation. From there we move into EQ vs. IQ and the importance of each in selling. You need to be R.E.A.L to become a best seller. Enjoy.   

Our guest on this episode is Jeff Koser. Jeff is the Founder and CEO at Zebrafi. Zebrafi is a guided selling cloud for the B2B enterprise.    Jeff and I start off the podcast discussing the importance of finding your perfect prospect prior to building your business case. A good way to start is to find look a like accounts, accounts that look like your best customers. You can fundamentally increase your chances of creating new opportunities by focusing on the right accounts. Planning is key so prior to outreach put together your prospecting plan for success.   But before we jump into the episode I want to thank our sponsor the T-REX Summit the southeast’s premier sales and marketing growth conference. Like many events we have pushed out T-REX and our new date is now September 1 & 2 at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.    We’ve got a great lineup of speakers including Cal Fussman, a world renown speaker, journalist and author, Erica Schultz the CMO at the RAIN Group, Brad McGinity the CRO at 15five, Aliisa Rosenthal the VP Sales at Walkme and Melissa Sargent the CMO at Litmus to name a few.    Go to trexsummit.com or more info or to purchase your ticket today and use coupon code “BestSelling" to take 50% off your ticket price now. 

Our guest on this episode is Joe Benjamin. Joe is the co-founder and CEO at CheetahIQ in NYC. CheetahIQ is a research platform for salespeople, allowing them to find the information they need up to 10X faster than before.   Joe and I start the podcast discussing how to find information nuggets that sellers can use to set themselves apart from the average sales person. Joe shares some of his secret data sources he uses to be more relevant for outreach and building the relationship. One of my favorites is the 10K annual report and the transcript from Quarterly earnings reports. You can learn a ton about from these reports about, company priorities, new initiatives, areas of focus and growth opportunities etc.    But before we jump into the episode I want to thank our sponsor the T-REX Summit the southeast’s premier sales and marketing growth conference. Like many events we have pushed out T-REX and our new date is now September 1 & 2 at the Carolina Theatre in Durham.    We’ve got a great lineup of speakers including Cal Fussman, a world renown speaker, journalist and author, Erica Schultz the CMO at the RAIN Group, Brad McGinity the CRO at 15five, Aliisa Rosenthal the VP Sales at Walkme and Melissa Sargent the CMO at Litmus to name a few.    Go to trexsummit.com or more info or to purchase your ticket today and use coupon code “BestSelling" to take 50% off your ticket price now.