Conversational Selling Nancy Calabrese

About Nigel Green: Nigel Green is an Advisor to Founders and Sales Leaders and the Author of "Revenue Harvest: A Sales Leader's Almanac For Planning The Perfect Year." Executives and sales leaders hire Nigel to improve sales team performance. By the age of 31, he was a Fortune 300 executive sales leader who had led sales for two healthcare companies that both experienced successful financial exits. Since publishing Revenue Harvest, he has advised dozens of sales teams on building a best-in-class sales team. Two of his clients have scaled and sold for more than 3X EBITDA, while others have attracted investments from top venture funds. Most importantly, they hit their sales targets. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Nigel.

In this episode, Nancy and Nigel discuss the following:
• Problems sales leaders face daily
• Focus areas for sales leaders: revenue, profitability, new customers
• Frequency of team meetings for sales leaders
• Importance of asking better questions
• Sales aptitude tests: context and application
• Hiring based on competency alone vs. considering chemistry and character
• Distinction between a good salesperson and a good sales leader
Key Takeaways:
o You must build a team to create customers at scale that aligns with the business's overarching strategy.
o Good sales leaders are productively paranoid about what is right around the corner that could derail my team.
o At least once a week, the leader has to meet with the team and remind them of this responsibility to meet and exceed future business expectations.
"I think the problems that sales leaders face could be bucketed under majoring in the minor things. And what that means, if we were to unpack it, is that if you found yourself in this position, it would sound all too familiar to you. You look back on your day; you were busy and did a lot of stuff. Most of what you did was probably internal and not enough external, meaning that you were on, especially today; we're recording this on a Monday. So, a lot of sales leaders today will spend their entire Monday in meetings that will probably not create one single customer, and they will probably not be involved in any training or development of the sales team. And it's certainly not going to be involved in the overarching strategy of the business. It's probably going to be meetings that involve updates around product or operations, updates that have already happened and that you cannot control and ultimately won't matter in creating a customer, training a rep, or the overarching strategy of the business. And that's the biggest problem: many sales leaders don't have enough autonomy in their schedule. And if they do have autonomy, they're still not spending it on the three areas of the business that matter most: customers, reps, strategy." – NIGEL
" I ask a lot of really good questions. So, it gets to where I'd never really have to ask anyone for an investment or to hire me because they see through the power of my questions that their life might be better if they had me as an extension of their team. So, that translates, I think, naturally to the types of things that I work on in my coaching business, which is primarily what I do as coach sales leaders. I help them improve the quality of their questions. And as they start asking better questions, they start having better problems. Better problems lead to better results. So, we get to this place where we don't have an activity problem, or we don't have a "we're not hitting our sales" problem. We start having deeper problems around strategy, positioning, technology, compensation plans, team structure, data, and augmenting sales reps with better support systems—not just hiring more people but hiring various sellers for different types of roles in the sales organization. And we start having better problems." - NIGEL
"If you want to transform your sales team, you've got to understand that your s

About Roy Osing: Roy Osing is a former president, CMO, and entrepreneur with over 40 years of successful and unmatched experience in executive leadership in every aspect of business. As President of a major data and internet company, his leadership and audacious 'unheard-of ways' took the company from its early stage to $1 Billion in annual sales. He is devoted to inspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, and organizations to stand apart from the average boring crowd and achieve their true potential. He is a resolute blogger, keen content marketer, dedicated teacher, and mentor to young professionals. As an accomplished business advisor, he is the author of the no-nonsense book series 'BE DiFFERENT or be dead.' Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Roy.

In this episode, Nancy and Roy discuss the following:
• Importance of differentiation in business
• Roy's concept of the "only statement"
• Use of passionate language to capture attention
• Cultivating a client-centric culture
• An unconventional approach to recruitment: "Hiring for Goosebumps"
• Embracing audaciousness to stand out
Key Takeaways:
o Differentiation is the key issue facing businesses today. Without it, organizations eventually die.
o Step outside your comfort zone and do things differently.
o Treat discomfort as your strategic ally. Be audacious, be brave, and choose to be different every day.
o Stand out by doing things others aren't doing.
"And so, I came up with this hiring for Goosebumps approach, which went as follows. First, I, as President of the company, was involved in panel interviews with most of the people we were hiring. And I did that for a specific reason. First, I wanted to show the people in my organization who sat around me what to do, and hopefully, hopefully, that they would copy what I did. Secondly, it shows the person applying for a job that they are important. So, I asked them two fundamental questions. I go, "Nancy, what I'd like to know is, do you love human beings?" Now, you would typically go, "Wow, okay, I've never had that question before. I think I know the right answer, but I have no idea where this dude is going with it." And you would say, "Well, yes, I do, Roy. I love human beings." I'd say, "Okay." So, the second question would be, "Tell me a story. Tell me a story that proves to me that you love humans." Now, this is the killer question, okay, because it separated the wheat from the chaff. The people that treated this as an academic exercise would give me a story that left me cold. Okay. There wasn't any truth to it. It was all mumbo jumbo, superficial, narcissistic chatter from this individual, right? But the person that had the gene told me a story that was so rich and passionate in terms of how they related to people and their feelings for people. Guess what it did, Nancy. It left me with goosebumps, and I got him right now. I would hire that person and teach him the business. People thought I was crazy. To this day, I can have; a while ago, I had a podcast with a PhD in HR in New York, and I told her this story, and she just went apoplectic. In fact, we had to stop the interview. She couldn't take it." – ROY
" I want you to be different. I want you to go out, be brave, be audacious, and choose to be different today, right now, in the moment, in some small way. I want you to be uncomfortable. I want you to treat discomfort as your strategic ally. I want you to do it. And tomorrow, I want you to do two things and be different. And the next day, I want you to do three things. I want you to sort of get this persona strand going for you because we need you to be different. Okay, we don't need you to conform. We don't need you to comply with the rules. Now, I'm not talking about being illegal. I'm saying step out, be creative, be innovative, and do things other people aren't doing. That's the source of joy. That's the source of economic opportunity. And we need yo

About Jason Friedman: Jason Friedman is the Founder and CEO at CXFormula, LLC, helping small businesses and entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses, increasing customer engagement, loyalty, retention, revenues, and profits while improving their customer experience and creating raving fans. Their approach is at the intersection of psychology, theatre, business, and marketing. With decades of theatre experience between them, they combine the art of storytelling with the science of human behavior to create reliable and consistent customer momentum, generate massive engagement, and achieve incredible business growth. Jason has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Nike, Disney, Foot Locker, Bank of America, and Harvard, to name a few. He's changing the way people look at the customer journey. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Jason.

In this episode, Nancy and Jason discuss the following:
• How his journey in theater inspired Jason to develop the Kinetic Customer Formula
• The importance of shifting perspectives to prioritize the customer experience
• Flipping the sales funnel to focus on customer success
• Adopting a strategic approach to over-delivery.
• The transformative effects of prioritizing customer success.
Key Takeaways:
o Onboarding is how we help people move from one type of relationship to the next, like every transition, and a relationship is an opportunity for onboarding.
o Overdelivery is going to kill your business.
o Focus on the experience you're creating for your customers: take a look at it through their eyes.
"What we did in theater, it's like: people come into a show, and all the problems in the world are going on for them. Suddenly, they disappear as the orchestra plays, the lights fade, and they become very present. As the story continues, they laugh at certain moments, shriek back at others, and clap. It's all choreographed to the end, where they are on a journey, experiencing a transformation, moving to their feet with glorious applause and standing ovations. After like 20 years of doing this, I realized, you know what? Like, I know how to keep customers' attention and bring them in, crafting the journey that customers go on with brands, companies, online businesses, offline businesses, products, services - you name it. We help businesses create deeper engagement, focusing on clients and building deeper relationships. It results in much bigger businesses, helping you scale your business. That's what the Kinetic Customer Formula is: all those years of experience packed into one nice little package." – JASON
"Because what ends up happening is the first light bulb that goes off is the realization that we as businesses make it hard for our customers to do business with us. [...] And so, the first thing I do is have them learn how to shift their perspective and understand the business from the customer's point of view. And when you do that, you realize: "Oh God, this is like, I wouldn't want to be my customer in many ways." And that first kind of light bulb that goes off is an emotional light bulb. Some people have, you know, felt bad because they have done everything they've done, and all they have decided to help the customers. [..] The second light bulb is where people start to understand: "Well, okay, I get it. We can remove the friction, but I still have all this competition, spending all this money on ads and all my clients.
I'm still not getting as many people in. I'm still not optimized". And the second light bulb is that we spend all our energy focusing on how to get strangers to come to our business and talk to us, and very little of our energy and money resources on helping the people who said yes to us get those results. Now, I will help them shift their focus to the other side of the funnel. So, we flip the funnel. Those are the first two big light bulbs that blow up for people. And then from ther

About Jon Keel: Jon Keel is the Founder and CEO of Improved Together, LLC, which helps small business people increase revenue and gain the freedom they want by using proven automated systems. Jon is a results-oriented Business Advisor who has been helping businesses and their leaders stand out and thrive for nearly 25 years. Jon has developed a local, national, and international reputation as a performance-based online marketing expert, actively involved in this arena since January 1997. In addition to being CEO of Improved Results, which he founded in September 1997, he co-developed the Xavier University MBA E-Business program, where he taught online marketing and e-commerce for over three years. Since 2008, his business has focused primarily on expanding its online presence, reputation marketing, and conversion improvement for local and regional businesses. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Jon.

In this episode, Nancy and Jon discuss the following:
• The rapid growth of LinkedIn and its frequent updates
• Importance of staying informed about LinkedIn's changes
• Need for a professional LinkedIn profile.
• Significance of staying current with LinkedIn's features.
• Tips on how to grow your LinkedIn followers through engagement.
Key Takeaways:
o The limit on connections is 30,000, but there is no limit on your number of followers.
o LinkedIn will now show about 60 to 70 % of the posts of the people for whose bell you've clicked.
o It's essential when you reach out to people and make connection requests that you include a personal message with the person.
o 99 % of LinkedIn users use it ineffectively and don't know due to ignorance.
"You have to master five principles. I have given a talk on mastering these five principles to be successful on LinkedIn. And, you know, one of them is to have a killer profile. LinkedIn also says, in addition to 99% of folks not using it effectively, that 99% of profiles— and I don't know any better way to say it— they suck. They're terrible. And people need to have their profiles be professional. In other words, would you show up as an amateur or a professional? And it's your choice. The second is to understand that it's about relationships on LinkedIn. It's not a quick sale. LinkedIn is not a transactional platform. It's a relationship platform. So, develop that mentality in your writing and in the videos that you do. And the third is to expand and grow your network. You can never have a large enough network on LinkedIn. And there are ways to do that. The fourth, I'm trying to remember, I'm just having a brain cramp this morning, but the fifth is to stay current, which is what I offer all my members, the ability to stay current through twice-a-month master classes that I hold where I share with them all this current stuff that I've learned. And my objective, Nancy, my objective is not to be the smartest guy in the room. I just hang out with them." – JON
"Well, the easiest way is to find people on LinkedIn that you want to follow, that you think, well, that person, I might, number one, have the opportunity to do business with them. Secondly, they might be a great referral source for me. So, it all starts first with following them. And I remember from the "Five Love Languages" book that came out many years ago, it's hard to withdraw before you make deposits. So, you make a deposit by following them and commenting on their content. A certain number of them will follow you back and comment on your comments. That's the way it starts. It's a process." - JON
"There's no limit to the number of posts you can do. I personally recommend three a week. Some people post every day, and that's fine. If you can do it, that's great. I personally don't have the time to do it every day, but certainly no more than once a day. When you post more than once a day, your overall post-exposure will increase, but subsequent posts are throttled, if you

About Eric Boggs: Eric Boggs is the Founder & CEO of RevBoss, an outbound agency on a mission to bring honesty and transparency to the B2B sales process. Using a mix of software automation, creative strategy and messaging, and top-notch client service, RevBoss powers full-service outbound campaigns for 100s of teams across a wide range of industries, including SaaS companies, marketing and creative agencies, video production services, and business services providers. Today, Eric leads the effort to bring happiness to 100s of clients and more than 50 RevBuds worldwide. Eric spent the last 20 years building companies and advising successful CEOs (Device Magic, Kevel, UserVoice, Ignite Social, and many more). He completed his undergraduate studies at UNC Chapel Hill and earned an MBA at UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he was a Dean's Fellow. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Eric.

In this episode, Nancy and Eric discuss the following:
• The importance of human conversation in sales
• Eric Boggs' mission with RevBoss: client and coworker happiness
• The role of AI in transforming sales and marketing processes
• Strategies for generating qualified appointments
• The effectiveness of personalized email subject lines
• Recommendations for optimizing email cadence and timing.
Key Takeaways:
o When you see really long emails, it's just laziness because it takes a lot of work to be sharp and direct in your communication.
o My team has probably gotten tired of hearing me say cut it in half, but I think you can cut it in half and usually cut it in half again.
o Content quality and volume are moving targets, but they are also goals you never achieve.
o If it can always be shorter, it can always be better.
"AI will not replace human-to-human interaction. However, it is in the process of absolutely transforming the steps in the marketing and selling process that ultimately will lead to human interaction. And it's doing that with content and decision-making and process enablement. And frankly, it's going to make the process better in the long run, but it's making it awful messy right now." – ERIC
"At RevBoss, we do lead generation for hundreds of clients. Most are marketing agencies, PR firms, and business services-type companies. That's probably 60% of our customers. 30% are SaaS technology companies, and 10% are other. Machine shops and commercial real estate are all kinds of odds and ends. And our strategy and mechanism are generally the same across the board. We're email first and primarily email. But increasingly, we're augmenting that with targeted display ads. And sometimes, we'll layer on a LinkedIn program if it's targeted and small and makes sense. We've never done phone. And I know that's your expertise. No, it's more of a personal preference and experience than anything else. We have plenty of clients that have had a lot of success cold calling internally or with partners. And we've worked, you know, we've told plenty of sales leads in the past, hey, yeah, we don't do that. But I do think that phone will work for you. We've just focused on email because we're good at it. We can automate it with a lot of technology and increasingly automate it with many AI integrations. And that's just kind of how we've how we built the business." - ERIC
" As a subject line, I'm rather ambivalent. If it works, it works; if it doesn't, it doesn't. We've had clients where we've dropped emojis and manipulated text. One thing I know works at RevBoss is that subject lines should resemble those you'd send to a coworker. You'd never send an email with a subject line like "Increase your XYZ by some percent," right? Good subject lines are casual, like "Hey, how's it going?" or "I have a question about this thing." You'll get the desired result as long as you broadly fall into that category. Emojis and text manipulation are great ideas." – ERIC
"Our general approach is three

About Benjamin Brown: Benjamin Brown is the CEO of 360 Sales Consulting, a company specializing in helping businesses and entrepreneurs excel in sales and dramatically increase their bottom line. Their proprietary sales system has come to be recognized as a "game-changer" and is in demand by companies of all sizes throughout the United States. Ben's sales career of more than twenty years began with selling health club memberships and quickly worked his way into sales manager and sales director positions. Having held both inside and outside sales positions, his diverse experience includes selling autos, computer products and services, voice recognition software, staffing, and transportation services. Ben is a former United States Marine with six years of service and a Veteran of the Gulf War. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Benjamin.

In this episode, Nancy and Benjamin discuss the following:
• The importance of confidence in sales
• The effectiveness of mentoring and coaching in learning sales
• A 10-step sales process based on Benjamin's proven sales system
• Customizing sales processes based on specific products or services
• The impact of AI on sales and the enduring importance of human interaction
• Benjamin's journey into sales and teaching
Key Takeaways:
o 80% of sales is confidence.
o Children are good salespeople because they close for no reason.
o Anytime you're in a conversation about working with an individual, there's always a sale.
o Sales is the essential part of a business that brings in the money.
o One of the things that I teach is that you have to like it, love it, or leave it.

" The best way to learn sales that I found is making sure that you have a proper mentor to work with or coach, especially if you haven't done it before or if you have done it not to the point where you've been satisfied. Sales is a skill, so it's better done in an apprentice-type situation where somebody is grading your performance as you do it. Theory, reading a book, watching videos and doing it and performing it doesn't work well because there's no way for you to get the direct feedback that you need to adjust." – BENJAMIN
"We live in a Western civilization where we're trained that your worth and things you want must be earned through your work. You don't negotiate. If you make enough money to negotiate in America, the only thing you know in life is a house and a car. But if you go overseas and go to third-world countries or other places less, their actual mentality or culture is that if you go to a market, an open market in a second or third-world country, there are no prices. Everything is a negotiation. Right? Everything's in the good in some cultures. If you don't negotiate, they will see it as negative. So, I love it when I go overseas, and I go to these places, and at the end of the tour, you'll see the native, the local people selling their arts and crafts at the end, and they're coming at you with the, you know, the pressure for you to buy. You can look and see the Americans because they start to cringe. They're not used to that aggression. But this is how people get things done in their country. We live in an economy where we don't have to deal with that. But we get more inundation through our phones and television, driving down the road. We get hit just like they do. It's just not verbally in our face." - BENJAMIN
"There's no need to fear sales if you understand that sales is a language. It's just like sign language or anything else, and if you can understand that, your life becomes a whole lot easier because you'll know when people are selling you and when you need to buy. And that comes through your personal life as well as your business. By doing that, your confidence level will increase because you now will understand that you need to listen more in a conversation because good salespeople are great listeners. And it is key. So, there are three th