WEBVTT

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Got A big part of building a
franchise to be successful is you need to

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really understand your customers and the type
of customers that you're going to engage with.

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You're listening to the Audible Ready podcast, the show that helps you and

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your teams sell more Faster. Will
feature sales leaders sharing their best insights on

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how to create a sales engine that
helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth. Presented

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by the team at Force Management,
a leader in B to B sales effectiveness.

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Let's get started. Hello, and
welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.

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I'm Racial Club Miller, and today
we're going to talk about filling your

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pipeline, prospecting, getting the right
mindset around driving your own pipeline, and

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today joining me for this conversation is
Force Management is Calledmore. Hi. Paul,

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Hey, Rachel, how are you
good? Good? Thank you for

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joining me for this conversation. I
brought Paul on for this chat because I

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see his work every day and he
is very good at driving pipeline and prospecting,

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and he could share some great best
practices that have worked for him and

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other people that follow our force Management
methodology over the years. So Paul,

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let's get into it. I mentioned
at the top about having the right mindset,

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and you need the right mindset for
prospecting. A lot of it comes

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down to accountability, being accountable for
driving your own number, and we use

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a concept called the franchise mindset having
that mindset. As a salesperson, I'd

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love to start by just hearing what
that mindset means to you in the role

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that you do every day. Yeah, I'd love to, So thanks for

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having me on. Enjoy these podcasters
for the record. In regards to the

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franchise model, when it comes to
building a franchise, in most cases you're

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given a patch, a location,
et cetera to build it right. When

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you join a franchise of a company, you don't necessarily get to pick where

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it's going to be, but you
get a general idea. And I think

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in the world of sales, depending
on what your role is that you're getting

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hired for, you tend to give
in a territory, maybe you're giving a

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list of accounts, et cetera,
and usually they're not the best. When

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you join a company, a lot
of the will say that tier one or

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the top A level accounts tend to
be with the top sellers, which makes

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a lot of sense. So in
order to get there, you need to

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earn it. So a lot of
times we talk about, you know,

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one of the first things when building
a franchise is to have a plan,

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right. John Kaplan would always say, have a plan to make a plan,

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and so part of building a business
plan is to target the right buyers,

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right, who are the actual decision
makers, who are the actual influencers

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out there, and people that can
ultimately help you build your franchise. When

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you talk about the role of a
seller, it's all around building pipeline,

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qualifying the pipeline, and then closing
the deals. So as you do this,

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you kind of really need a plan
on how you're going to attack the

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market. I'm reminded of a podcast
actually, it was on Revenue Builders with

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Kelly Conry. I go ahead and
link it in the show notes as well

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as that a Plan to make the
plan podcast we have that you just mentioned

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from John Kaplan, but he tells
a story of how his first sales job,

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he was given Arkansas as a territory
and he was like living in Texas

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and they were like, go sell
Arkansas, and he knew it was like

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not the best, right, but
kind of you have to work with what

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you have and having this right mindset. The business plan to your comment is

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how you can make the most out
of what you've been given. Yeah,

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and I don't know what he was
selling an Arkansas, but I can't imagine

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it was a lot of anything,
right, So it's I get the concept

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of that. You know, a
lot of times when sellers walk into jobs

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and territories, they tend to look
at what were the activities that people were

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doing prior to they got there,
right, And you always hear this story

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back in the day where a seller
would walk in and the most successful ones

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would see a bunch of Manila folders
on a desk with a bunch of contacts

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and stuff, and instead of going
through each of those basically doing with the

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person who you replaced was doing,
they tend to throw it away and start

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early again and start over right.
And I think a big part of building

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a franchise to be successful is you
need to really understand your customers and the

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type of customers that you're going to
engage with. And a lot of the

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conversations that we get Rachel at Forest
Management come back to the essential questions right,

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the four essential questions that we have
in the back of our business card,

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with the first one being what problems
do you solve for your customers?

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And what I love about that question
is I can ask you know, many

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sales leaders, sales reps on an
airplane, on the golf course, anywhere

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you run into them and they say
they're in sales. If I ask them

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a simple question of what type of
problems do you solve? They tend to

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tell me what their product does right, And we need to get out of

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that mindset. But what are the
problems that people are having today? How

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do you specifically solve those problems?
That's what you're going to get when you

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on board within your new hire,
and you're going to learn about all the

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great products and services. But then
we need to understand how are we different

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than the competition, including doing nothing
right? And so when we look at

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our list of accounts that we're targeting, well, there's probably four or five

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other companies that are targeting the same
accounts. So how do we truly understand

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our differentiation and pull all that together? And then, as a new seller,

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you don't really have a lot of
proof points, right, You don't

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have your own, you do need
to borrow. So when you do meet

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the ecosystem and you start to talk
to some of your peers on your team,

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it's always good to find out you
know what's working and give us some

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examples of some success stories in your
territory. Learning those stories as proof points,

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it's easy to memorize the measurable results, but understanding the story behind the

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proof point, particularly if you're a
news seller, can really help you get

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a grasp on the answers to these
essential questions. What were the problems,

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how did we solve them? How
do we win that deal that was because

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we were differentiated? How are we
differentiated? And how we delivered it?

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That can really be an asset for
you as you enable yourself to find more

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customers like that for your pipeline.
Absolutely, and then ultimately it's drive the

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right activity right And you know,
I think when it comes to prospecting and

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people targeting new accounts, a lot
of times you hear the term single threaded

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where they're going in with one point
of contact or you know, I used

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to always say at PTC when people
were prospecting, is when you're looking at

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a company, if you truly understand
their business and the problems that they're having.

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There's not one person they can tell
you. Now, so how do

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you expand the reach within the account
and meet with other people? Yeah,

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so all of those things going into
having the right mindset, whether that's that

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franchise mindset or whatever you want to
call it. But you own your terbriatory

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or your list of accounts. You
accountable for the results there. And the

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more you understand the customers, as
Paul said, through the answers to those

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four essential questions, what problems you
solve, how do you solve them,

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how do you do it differently or
better than the competition, and the proof

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behind that, the more successful you
will be at hitting the bullseye at that

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target. When you're prospecting and that
mindset too, you're just looking for those

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triggers. I know at Force Management, like one point in time when people

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bring us in is when there's a
merger and acquisition and they really need help

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driving consistency. So when I'm like
on LinkedIn and I see there's a company

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about another company there's a merger and
acquisition, I'm like, oh, trigger,

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somebody check this one out. Because
you just have that mindset of what

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you can do for your customer base. So we talked about ownership, and

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you're likely, no matter what your
sales role, God willing, you're getting

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some leads that are coming to you. If the rest of the company is

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doing their job, you're likely getting
some leads. But you really can't rely

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on one source. And that's that
accountability. And I know that you kind

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of pass the wide net, so
to speak. You know, one of

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my boss's PTC. Tim Cabans,
used to always say on your business card,

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at the end of the day,
your title is sales and you're measured

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for what you do. And so
you know you can rely on people and

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you can wait for the qualified leads
that come your way. But the reality

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is, you know, at the
end of the month, end of the

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quarter, it is your forecast that
you'll be held accountable for. Right and

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as a new hire, a big
part of it is building out activities.

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And so when you do work with
marketing, and I work really well with

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marketing, I think in my point
of view, it's great. But also

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where are some other sources of knowledge
or connections can you tap into? And

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you know, you see, like
you mentioned LinkedIn, there's a lot out

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there with board members, right,
What board members are on accounts that you

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may or may have come across.
What about companies that have similar customers?

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Right? So if you think about
the products that you sell in your customers,

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you know, maybe there's some other
people out there that have customers or

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themselves that are similar or you have
prior relationship as you expand your market over

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time, you know. The reality
is when you think about the connections in

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LinkedIn, when somebody has five hundred
plus connections, my experience is I may

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call them up and say, hey, do you know X, Y,

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Z and sew and sell? The
answer is now, right, So you

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got to figure out what are ways
to get around And the term that I

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use is when you're meeting new people
and you're trying to establish that is you

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need to earn the trust. And
part of that is when you communicate with

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people, even if it starts with
the LinkedIn connection and introduction, it's not

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an inside out approach but an outside
in. How can I help you,

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regardless of the outcome I'm trying to
achieve it, How can I help you

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be successful in your role? So, as you mentioned, companies are doing

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things are promoting stuff on LinkedIn.
How do you provide some type of knowledge

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and support to help them be more
successful in the role. Yeah, give

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them offer them some value. Yeah. And part of it is, you

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know when you think about white papers, right. I remember back in the

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day, I got a manager send
me a document and said, hey,

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take a look at this. I
knew he didn't look at it. Here's

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just forty off emails, and so
I didn't look at it since then.

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You know, when I think about
a white paper, you read it and

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then you provide summary, You summarize
it three or four bullets. Why is

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this valuable to you or to your
role or to your company. The same

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thing with webinars, right, and
a podcast is provide a quote that's in

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there that's particularly relevant, but also
be specific on what minute in the webinar

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does this conversation come up, so
it's more relevant and they get to jump

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right to it, right. And
I think that's all around just trying to

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build a normal cadence of helping people
and things will come and return it usually

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does. Yeah, And making it
easy for them to see why this piece

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of content is relevant to me,
making it easy for yourself as a seller,

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to use the content or the marketing
assets that are available to you,

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but going down one extra step to
make sure that it's received well by who

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every year reaching out to is one
way we can differentiates as salespeople. You've

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mentioned a lot of good tactics after
we have the right mindset things that we

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can do to help drive pipeline and
prospecting. I'm curious for your tips for

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those of the people listening out there
of how you work it into your daily

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rhythm as a seller, because there's
a thousand things you have to do each

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day, including recording a podcast with
me. But how do you get a

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rhythm behind it so you don't like
do it one week and then stop for

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the next eight Like, what's your
rhythm behind it? Yeah, and it's

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pipeline building. It's a twenty four
to seven role, right, You're always

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looking and you're always looking out there. Jack Napli, my boss at PTC

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for like seven years. One of
the comments that we always talk about building

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pipeline is like shaving. You can't
shave seven day or seven times on Sunday

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because you're going to be too busy
the rest of the week to shave.

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It's something that you need to do
every day and do it all the time,

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and so and part of it is
it's like working out. The hardest

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part is getting started right. And
so when it comes to prospecting, one

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of the things that I do is
I have thirty minutes in my calendar every

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single morning where I am targeting new
opportunities, new buyers, looking at accounts

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to see what has happened in their
business, looking at press releases, and

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it's uninterrupted time and it's all tied
to getting this done. And one of

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the biggest mistakes that I've seen people
make Rachel is once they get a big

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pipeline, they start closing some deals, they stop doing that and then go

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back to the gym. It's always
hard to start all over again. And

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so it's something that you just need
to make it part of your normal rep

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operating rhythm on a regular basis.
Yeah, and sales ebbs and flows right,

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and when you're in the down when
things are slow, you're going to

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be glad that you had a rhythm
around that pipeline a hundred percent. So

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having the right mindset some great tips
there to work it into the daily rhythm.

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Using content as a way to add
value you blocking your calendar for thirty

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minutes a day. Those are some
great tips. Paul leave us with some

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final thoughts for the listeners out there
on prospecting and really owning it as a

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salesperson. So one of the things
that we talk about is the concept and

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command of the message is believing what
you do matters. You know, and

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no matter what you're selling a technology
or whatever it is, but you have

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the ability to change people's lives,
change you know, the way managers manage

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their business, and then ultimately change
the valuation of customers that you're targeting.

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Right, and when you think about
what you do matters, it motivates me

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to find new targets and have discovery
calls and conversations about what they do and

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what are they struggling with and how
we can help. One of the rules

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that I've done was always is that
one more right. Making one more call

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is elementaries that sounds it's the reality. And I have multiple proof points over

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the year where I've made one more
call and I could get one more deal

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coming out of it. I go
into it with a smile, I enjoy

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it and it's worked out really well. Right, Well, I know that

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the listeners will appreciate your perspective on
this topic today, Paul, awesome,

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Well, thank you, yes and
thank you hey. On Paul's spirit of

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one More, how about listening to
one more podcast. I'm linking us several

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in the show notes on this topic, so be sure to check them out

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and thank you for listening to the
Audible Ready Sales Podcast. At Force Management,

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we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver

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programs that build company alignment and fuel
repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the

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ability to execute the growth strategy at
the point of sale. Our strength is

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our experience. The proof is in
our results. Let's get started. Visit

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us at forcemanagement dot com. You've
been listening to the Audible Ready podcast.

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00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:58.919
To not miss an episode, subscribe
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until next time. Six