Episodes

When it comes to sales, most sale executives and sales leaders are blinded by their own beliefs about their offerings and their solutions. This results in them often coming across as pushy, or trying to convince a customer to take a specific course of action. We know that sales is all about problem solving and in order to help a customer solve a problem, we must change the way we think, and therefore how we interact with them. In order to influence, we need to consider what are the elements that...

One of the fascinating areas of sales is the psychology of selling, both from a selling perspective, as well as from a buyers perspective. So many sales people are conditioned to focus on their own company’s products, services and solutions and hence their behaviours in a sales call reflect that. When they are challenged by a customer on price or functionality, they have the ‘answers’ – the problem though is often those answers are not enough to tip the customer over the edge from curious to co...

When speaking with sales leaders and their teams, more often than not they are searching for improvements in their technique, or a tweak to their process or methodology, hoping that the tweaking will lead to improved results. What is often not front of mind is the importance of their mindset. Why is that? Often it is such a difficult topic to quantify and measure, hence it is somewhat de-prioritised. Mindset though is the difference that makes all the difference, especially at the elite level. A...

Over the last 8 years, I have thoroughly enjoyed working with sales leaders & their teams to help them unleash their sales potential, engaging with sales teams across a very wide spectrum of industries. The vast majority have their customers best interests at heart. The one consistent element though through just about every single sales team is the propensity to introduce & talk about their product or service too early in the buyers purchasing cycle. And sales leaders, we are often the biggest ...

Workplace diversity and inclusion is a huge topic in society today and will only continue to get bigger. As sales leaders, it is incredibly important that we embrace diversity and be more consciously aware of any stereotypes or biases that may be impacting our decision making, both with our existing team, and especially when it comes to bringing on new talent. And being truly diverse and truly inclusive will not require organisations to have specific targets or quotas for specific people. How di...

It is not often that I get the opportunity to have a conversation with a fellow Sales Trainer, Sales Consultant and Sales Speaker. Why? Because many people in this industry are highly competitive and not willing to share their insights, thoughts and ideas to help improve the sales profession. Many of them are very protective. L’areal is not one of them. As Founder and CEO of Lipkins Consulting Group, L’areal has built a very successful career in the sales training and consulting field and is hig...

If there is one thing that I have consistently seen over many years working with sales leaders and their teams, it is the lack of preparation for sales calls. Many sales executives sit in front of either customers or prospective customers and ‘wing it’, often defaulting to speaking about their product or service, or even worse, pricing!! Unfortunately the vast majority have learned this behaviour from their sales managers or dare I say it, senior executives who are wheeled in for the ‘royal vis...

It has often been said that it is lonely at the top – and anyone who has been in a senior leadership position would probably agree whole heartedly with that statement. The pressure on a leader to set the strategy, cast the vision, and deliver the result has never been greater than now, and for many leaders, they have no one who they can confide in, bounce ideas off, or seek guidance and counsel from. They often feel like a lone wolf. Enter the fool. In today’s episode, I enjoy a 2nd conversation...

In the busyness of sales, it is easy to get caught up in the moment, and react to the situation we find ourselves and our team in. How often though do we, as sales leaders, take a step back and ask ourselves ‘Am I helping or am I hindering?’ If you are like me when I was leading sales teams, the answer is not very often. Over the years, the more I have worked with sales leaders and their teams, the more I have realised that we must be 100% conscious of the each moment, and must build better awa...

In elite sporting environments, we hear more and more the reference to culture and if a team is to perform sustainably at an exceptional level, there must be an engaged and inclusive culture. There is also a huge amount of pressure, both externally and internally on the leaders to maximise performance and to deliver results, which can often have leaders questioning their priorities and where they invest their time and energy. What has not been spoken about at length is the importance of characte...

Sales is the lifeblood of every business, period. And yet many organisations, small and large, struggle with selling their products and services and therefore miss out on maximising their potential. In many cases, smaller organisations which have grown from start up, rely heavily on the founder to ‘sell’, and often this person is not a salesperson, and does not want to be a salesperson. As a result, the growth of the organisation is stifled. In today’s episode, I enjoy a fabulous conversation wi...

As a leader, it is vital that we are aware that our every move is being watched like a hawk. Our team expects us to set the example. To ‘Be’ the Model of Excellence that will lead to exceptional and sustainable results. And it starts with the small things. Everything we do is a strategy and whilst the small ‘stuff’ may not appear important or relevant on the surface, it is the strategy behind it which will indicate how successful we will be, and ultimately how influential we will be.

Sales Leaders today are under more and more pressure, and this will only ramp up further as 2023 progresses. Getting requests from left, right and centre can sometimes feel overwhelming as multiple stakeholders hold different expectations. We need to understand this key principle – if we do not control our diary, others will, and we will therefore be at the mercy of other people’s agendas. Hence, we need to get better at saying no. That is what I explore in today’s episode.

As a sales leader, what environment are you creating? It’s a question that I often ask sales leaders and the response is often ‘high performing, empowering….’ – often positive. And yet when I look at them in action, the focus is always on the numbers, and hence the conversation is always centred on numbers. So as long as the numbers are good, we have a high performing environment. Numbers are important, but they are not the be all and end all. Exceptional Sales Leaders are intentional about the ...

Happy New Year. With a new year comes new hopes, new ambitions and new levels of energy. The slate is clean and we can create whatever we want. Use 2022 as a platform for exponential growth in 2023 and decide to make this year your most exceptional year yet. For that to happen, we know we must think differently, behave differently and lead differently. If we expect a different result in 2023 without making some changes from what we did in 2022, then we know the outcome – same same. The first ...

This year has been another phenomenal year of challenges, obstacles, growth and opportunities, and in this last podcast episode for 2022, I would like to thank every guest who gave up their time to provide their guidance, insights and expertise to the listeners, as well as thank you the listener, for plugging into The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast. I continue to be humbled by the opportunity to provide insights on sales and sales leadership, as well as to be able to speak to the calibre of pe...

There are many attributes and characteristics that sales leaders and their teams must embrace and develop in order to become exceptional – understanding their buyers cycle, key problems in the marketplace, sales strategy, just to name a few. An area that is often overlooked is the art of negotiation. Too many sales leaders and their teams ‘wing it’ when it comes to negotiations, whether that be with internal stakeholders or external stakeholders, and hope that the strength of their solution or t...

When it comes to sales and marketing, the vast majority of organisations take a surface level approach to lead generation. Whilst they may measure kpi’s such as cost per click, number of leads flowing in, and even their lead conversation rate, they don’t go deep enough in their analysis and focus, and hence miss out on profitable opportunities. In today’s episode, I enjoyed a fascinating conversation with Joe Khoei, Founder of SalesX, an organisation that helps companies develop profitable custo...

If you ask most people about what they think about sales, the vast majority will answer with descriptions such as ‘pushy’, ‘untrustworthy’, ‘aggressive’. It has almost been accepted that people in sales must demonstrate those characteristics, which is unfortunate. Rarely do you hear someone describe sales as ethical, genuine and authentic, but that is exactly the characteristics that great sales people possess & demonstrate. In today’s episode, I enjoyed a fabulous conversation with Collin Mitch...

As we approach the final days of 2022, it is the perfect time to dedicate quality time to reflection and recovery. When we study elite performers, whether they be individuals or teams, we will discover that they dedicate specific time to reflection & recovery. Analysing their performance across 2022 – looking at what they did well so they can identify positive habits and build higher levels of performance around those habits. They also identify gaps and areas that are not yet elite, but throu...

One of the challenges faced by many sales leaders is having to manage the expectations of the business, the senior executives and stakeholders, and deliver on the key priorities. As we get closer to the end of the month and/or quarter, the pressure mounts, especially with stakeholders trying to remain top of mind to achieve objectives. This can be overwhelming for sales leaders and if we don’t manage this, it can have a detrimental impact on how the team performs, not to mention the precedence i...

We have all heard that sales is a numbers game, and in order to win, we must get familiar with losing, of coming up short, of ‘failing’. So why is it that many sales leaders and their teams avoid failure? They don’t reach out to the ideal prospect for fear of being rejected. They don’t ask for what they want, for the fear of being told no. We must learn to use challenges, obstacles and failure as stepping stones. There is not a single super successful person on the planet who has not had to deal...

With 2 working weeks left until Christmas, the pressure cooker will be ramping up left, right and centre to get as many deals closed off as possible. Senior executives conducting daily cadence reviews to lock in committed forecasts. Sales Executive’s doing whatever they can to bring forward deals into this quarter. To say this time of year can be a stressful time would be an understatement. For many sales leaders, this pressure can only lengthen the items on the ‘to do list’, as they scramble t...

One of the joys of being in the podcasting space is the opportunity to have conversations with exceptional people, and today I had the privilege of speaking with Holly Procter. Holly is the SVP-Global Head of Sales at Clari, is a very passionate sales leader, is dedicated to creating an environment within her business for her sales team to thrive, and is a wonderful example of an exceptional sales leader. In this episode, we delve into how Holly got into sales by design and not by accident, talk...