119 episodes

A must-listen for B2B sales and business leaders, where Steven Norman discusses today’s world-class B2B sales strategies with global sales thought leaders, frontline sales professionals, coaches, Entrepreneurs, and industry influencers. Sales and buying have both dramatically changed... have you kept up the pace?

Future-Proof Selling Steven Norman : Author, Keynote Speaker & B2B Sales Consultant

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 48 Ratings

A must-listen for B2B sales and business leaders, where Steven Norman discusses today’s world-class B2B sales strategies with global sales thought leaders, frontline sales professionals, coaches, Entrepreneurs, and industry influencers. Sales and buying have both dramatically changed... have you kept up the pace?

    How to Influence Enterprise Buyers with Douglas Cole

    How to Influence Enterprise Buyers with Douglas Cole

    Douglas Cole is an Enterprise Sales Leader at LinkedIn, an advisor with start-up accelerators in Canada and the U.S., and a part-time university lecturer at The Rotman School of Management and The Schulich Executive Education Centre in Toronto. If that isn’t enough, he has also authored The Sales MBA: How to Influence Corporate Buyers.
    Doug joined the LinkedIn team because he believes in their vision and values, and he’s committed to refining his craft as a leader. Doug’s team helps B2B sales organisations thrive in our digital era.
    He is actively involved with internal education: as a faculty member of LinkedIn's Data-Driven University (DDU), creating professional development programs with institutional partners, and standing up a Mini-MBA for the global sales team. He’s also on the leadership team that sets direction for LinkedIn Canada.
    “My career spans consulting, education, and sales. Three interests are at the heart of this journey. I like big picture thinking and analysis. That’s the consultant in me. I like distilling first principles to help others improve. That’s the educator in me. I like driving growth and rallying around a common purpose. That’s the sales leader in me. In essence, I enjoy teasing out hidden sources of meaning in our personal and professional lives.” - Douglas Cole
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Douglas’s new book The Sales MBA: How to Influence Corporate Buyers
    The general lack of Business Acumen in Salespeople The saturated knowledge economy Understanding the external dynamics Getting to know the organisational dynamics Nailing the interpersonal dynamics Becoming a strategist for the industry Becoming a change agent for the company Becoming a decision architect for the customer Choosing language and messaging carefully Behavioural economics in sales
    To connect with Chris, you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Find More on his book: The Sales MBA here

    • 26 min
    Hiring Driven Top Sales Performers with Chris Croner

    Hiring Driven Top Sales Performers with Chris Croner

    Dr. Christopher Croner received his BA in Psychology from DePaul University, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
    Dr. Croner is co-author of the book, Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again, detailing his research and practice in identifying the non-teachable personality traits common to top producers.
    Dr. Croner developed the proprietary DriveTest® online sales test and The Drive Interview, both used for hiring “Hunter” salespeople. Using this method, he has helped more than 1,400 companies worldwide to hire and develop top-performing salespeople.
    Dr. Croner has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, teaching personnel selection in the Industrial Psychology Master of Arts program. His is is an active member of the Consulting Section of the Illinois Psychological Association and former Co-Program Chair of Chicago Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (CIOP).
    “In 2002, I discovered there was a lack of assessment tools specifically targeting Drive in sales candidates, so I set out to develop my own sales assessment test. After years of research, development, and validity testing, I developed The DriveTest®: The only sales assessment that is scientifically designed to identify candidates that possess the three non-teachable traits common to top producers.
    Want to start hiring top sales talent? Let me offer you a free DriveTest® right now. Visit: https://salesdrive.info/free-trial-request to access a free test.” - Dr Christopher Croner
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Chris’s clinical psychology background and entry into sales
    The three key un-teachable personality traits that create “Drive”
    The cost and dangers of hiring on “gut feel”
    Best practice hiring processes to secure high performing hunters
    Tips to attracting high drive applicants in your ads
    Communicating culture and opportunity
    The well-constructed phone screening process
    The importance of a structured behavioural interview
    Designing the right interview questions
    The power of an assessment PRIOR to interview

    To connect with Chris, you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Find More on Sales Drive here

    • 27 min
    Crush Your Quota with Ian Koniak

    Crush Your Quota with Ian Koniak

    Ian Koniak is an accomplished sales coach, trainer and keynote speaker who helps B2B Account Executives perform to their full potential and crush their quotas by mastering the mindset, habits, and skills needed to perform at the highest level.
    Ian has been a top performing Account Executive for 19 years, with over $100M in career sales at Fortune 500 companies. He's led and developed teams, and was recently the #1 Account Executive in the Enterprise Select Division at Salesforce. 
    Ian is now on a mission to share his secrets to success with the sales community.
    Most recently Ian worked as a Strategic Account Director for the Enterprise West Sales team at Salesforce, where he partnered with their largest customers to help them drive growth, innovation, and success on the Salesforce Platform. At Ricoh, he led a team of 10 Sales Managers and 70 reps responsible for 60M Annual Revenue across hardware, software, and services.
    “After a near death experience, I started a coaching business to serve others and help them achieve incredible success. My mission is to share my learnings over 19 years in tech sales to help AE's perform their best.” - Ian Koniak
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Ian’s impressive sales success story Discipline vs being “motivated” Mindset and personal development Getting in the habit of doing the hard things Steven Covey’s time management quadrant Selling in a recession Innovatively creating opportunities in sales To connect with Ian, you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Or visit Ian's Website https://iankoniak.com/  to learn more

    • 37 min
    Sales Hiring in a Candidates' Market with Dan Kijewski

    Sales Hiring in a Candidates' Market with Dan Kijewski

    Dan Kijewski is Senior Director of Enterprise and Staffing Sales at Talent.com - a leader in the recruitment advertising and technology space. He is responsible for sales strategy, strategic planning, recruitment, marketing, product, and all activities required to grow the US Enterprise and Staffing team into a $25m+ business over the next 12months.
    Dan has 20+ years of sales experience, coupled with his recruitment expertise and deep knowledge of the current market. Dan shares his valuable insight on hiring sales talent in a candidate’s market, and how both employers and candidates should approach recruitment processes in order to have the best outcomes for all involved. 
    “Small and Medium Sized Businesses especially (SMBs) need a plan to have a consistent pipeline of candidates at their disposal. In the current candidate market, they need to be prepared to lose people as well as learn how to bring on new candidates faster and expect these hiring challenges to continue for the foreseeable future.” - Dan Kijewski 
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Handling recruitment in a candidate's market The impact on HR leaders Culture and mental health focus The shift in how leaders need to treat their team Sales hiring and interview processes Key indicators (and red flags) to look for in an interview Customer success strategies To connect with Dan, you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Find More on Talent.com here

    • 25 min
    Developing The Sales Process For Founders with Brendan McAdams

    Developing The Sales Process For Founders with Brendan McAdams

    Brendan McAdams is Co-founder of Expertscape, a global directory of medical experts, 
    And also Founder of Kiinetics. 
    Kiinetics is a specialty B2B sales coaching and consulting practice with an emphasis on sales strategy and techniques, marketing, customer success and relationship management. 
    Brendan has particular industry experience helping healthcare technology companies advance their sales success into health plan, ACO and health system markets.
    Over the last 10+ years, Brendan has helped dozens of founders recognise, attack and overcome the very common challenges unique to early-stage startups:
    Fear of rejection Dealing with competing responsibilities Handling proposals and customer negotiations Managing the revenue expectations typical of an evolving product roadmap Navigating the complexities of developing a repeatable (and standardized) implementation and successful onboarding process Brendan has also written a book on sales fundamentals, SALES CRAFT, that outlines 50 fundamental sales skills, practices and ideas that every sales professional should consider as they work to improve their sales effectiveness.
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Why Founders “fear” the sales function  Key challenges for early stage startups Narrowing your ICP before building out the product The unique and powerful position of the Founder The importance of a good system and process Getting into the “expert mindset” Learning to say “no” to a potential customer Brendan’s sales accelerator program To connect with, and learn more about Brendan you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Discover more about his offerings at Kiinetics.com

    • 28 min
    Sell Without Selling Out with Andy Paul

    Sell Without Selling Out with Andy Paul

    Andy Paul has been in sales for over four decades. In his professional career I’ve sold everything from computers to small businesses to complex communications systems that sold for tens of millions of dollars to some of the world’s largest enterprises. 
    Andy has grown and managed large sales teams from scratch and coached average performers into being top producers. Andy closed hundreds of millions of dollars in products and services before starting his own company.
    Andy is ranked #8 on LinkedIn's list of Top 50 Global Sales Experts and more than 170,000 people have signed up to follow the knowledge he shares. His hit "Accelerate Your Sales" podcast was acquired by Revenue.io in 2020. Since re-named "Sales Enablement with Andy Paul", the show continues to inspire thousands of sales professionals each week.
    Andy has also written two award-winning sales books, "Zero-Time Selling" and "Amp Up Your Sales". 
    As a bit of an introvert, Andy was not your typical salesperson. His first employer didn’t think he’d ever succeed because they believed he was “too analytical.”
    It’s his different approach to sales that inspired his new book “Sell Without Selling Out.” A proven framework to increase win rates and shorten decision cycles without the salesy behaviours that buyers hate.
    Key Points of our Discussion
    Are salespeople getting better at selling? Or perhaps worse Ask better questions and make deeper connections Selling out vs “selling in” The four pillars of “selling in” How we should view and approach our careers in sales What type of seller is really going to make it big? Could processes and playbooks be a constraint?  Properly understanding the purpose and power of discovery The power of small talk The real meaning of providing value To connect with, and learn more about Andy you can find him here on LinkedIn
    Discover more about his offerings and his new book “Sell Without Selling Out” at andypaul.com

    • 33 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
48 Ratings

48 Ratings

KTisdellAmbrose ,

Top podcast for sales people

Always top quality guests on Steven’s show and I like how Steven always extracts the absolute best from them, asking insightful questions and narrowing in on their expertise. Great variety of sales topics too! Karen Tisdell, LinkedIn Trainer

Beezy023 ,

Very insightful

Steven and his guests awareness in the modern world of selling and management make this podcast well worth listening to.

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