How to Grow from Manager to Sales Leader w/ Tim Sanders [Episode 605]

Tim Sanders, author of four books, including the New York Times bestseller Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business & Influence Friends and Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges, joins me for the second time on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Tim says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is the overwhelming technology. Organizations must simplify processes and choose the tools that make the biggest difference. Sales is getting more complex.
• Buyer stakeholders are increasing in number but there is one dominant mobilizer and the sales rep may be able to meet that person once. Reps need a creative advantage, such as a heroic journey or a well-chosen metaphor.
• A story is not an anecdote about your company. A story has movement and tension. The only way your prospect will retell the story internally is if the prospect sees themself as the protagonist. A metaphor works for this.
• Tim tells how Yahoo responded when clients demanded to pay per click. Yahoo argued an iceberg metaphor for digital influence beyond the click. The metaphor made a huge impact on Yahoo’s own influence reach.
• Tim shares a more recent metaphor used by Regus for the enterprise. They went from running into a brick wall to reaching the ‘cloud.’ Use either an archetypal metaphor or a contemporary metaphor to stick in the memory.
• Account-Based Marketing is one segment of the market. Dealstorming has a place in ABS and ABM. Dealstorming teams in ABS are smaller and tend to stay intact over time. Tim explains how they operate.
• Most IT decisions are now made by managers buying software without consulting IT. IT is sweeping out ‘shadow IT’ solutions. Go through the IT department for success at a client. Land-and-expand only works through channels.
• Tim notes the difference between a sales manager and a sales leader. It’s ‘zeroes’ or ‘commas.’ Sell the larger products.
• Tim talks about hiring and management and the leader-management-exchange or LMX theory in sales. Reward competence and dedication with latitude. Similarly, reps give value to prospects in return for time.
• KPIs and activity metrics are not the keys to success. Tim tells a story of CareerBuilder shaping their culture through rewarding competency commitment and dedication.
• Demonstrate an intense level of curiosity. Create your own learning plan outside of the company’s learning plan. Show EQ.
• Develop competency in the human elements of sales.