Open Source Selling -- A Thoughtful Exchange of Ideas in the Art and Science of B2B Selling

Be a doer as well as a thinker

Steve Jobs famously said, "The doers are the major thinkers. The people that really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker and doer in one person." On this episode of Open Source Selling, I bridge the gap between thinking and doing and discuss as Jobs points out, that to be a successful account executivea, to become a top performer, you must be "both the thinker and doer in one person."

Thinking & Working Deeply

Thomas Edison once said, "Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think." Is learning how to think really that rare and valuable? Cal Newport seems to agree as he hypothesized in his book, Deep Work, "The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive."  I believe our ability as account executives, and other sales professionals, to carve out time to think and do what Cal Newport calls Deep Work, will increasingly be at the center of differentiating ourselves and becoming top performers in the field of B2B Sales!

The value of thinking!

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss the importance of carving time out in your day to think. This sounds simple, but in today's ever connected, "too much to do and never enough time" world, thinking seems to be a dying art even though the importance of it has never been more important. Tom Watson, founder of IBM, said ,"All the problems of the world could be settled easily, if people were only willing to think." As you reflect on the world's greatest innovators, problem solvers, business, education, church, and government leaders most of them were or are some of the greatest thinkers! My experience has been so are the greatest account executives!

Objection Handling Part III

On this week's episode of Open Source Selling, I address a few more common objections and offer insight on how to approach, understand, and handle them. I also address what is at the core of effectively overcoming objections: better understanding your customer's perspective and then merging their perspective with your product, service, or solution to radically improve their current situation. How do we do this? We ask effective questions, know why we are asking the questions we ask, where we want the conversation to go, listen attentively, clarify, and then bring into alignment the two competing perspectives.

Objection Handling Part II

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss another common objection: 'we have no budget' and share my experience in how I have approached handling it. We often receive this objection when we are on a prospecting call or in the early stages of discovery. However, it is common to get it later on in the sales cycle too. Regardless of when we get this, or any objection, we should be grateful for the engagement and use the objection as a springboard to seek clarity by asking additional questions. If done sincerely and effectively, we will build additional trust, improve relationships, and develop our skillset in overcoming objections as account executives, customer success reps, and sales development reps.