September 21, 2024 | Read online
Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday.
Holy shit what a crazy week.
For those of you who weren’t following along, I attended Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference in San Francisco and Hubspot’s INBOUND conference in Boston in less than 48 hours and zero sleep.
Check out the post I did on Linkedin outlining my schedule.
Not only was it a crazy week but an eye-opening one as well.
Let’s get into why.
TACTICAL TIPS: We all have to level up
SALES RESOURCES: GetAbstract
SALES FROM THE STREETS: A conversation with my uber driver
TACTICAL TIPS:
We all need to level up
This is my 10th year attending Salesforce’s Dreamforce conference.
It’s one of the most impressive tech conferences I’ve ever been to.
Their keynotes are always amazing, especially when they show all the new releases and highlight what the future of sales is going to look like.
Unfortunately, over the years, I’ve seen some impressive stuff on stage only to be disappointed later on when I realize that product or feature isn't available or it didn’t really get integrated or the release date was pushed too far out to even remember it.
This holds true for almost any tech conference I’ve ever been to by the way. I thought we were all going to be wearing huge bulky headsets and living in a virtual world by now.
I guess that’s not very “Meta” anymore, I mean Sigma (or whatever word kids are using to describe something that’s cool these days)
This year was different, though.
The main focus at Dreamforce was their AI Agents.
They showed how AI Agents can do almost anything you could possibly imagine related to sales and engaging with clients.
These agents can do automatic account research to help with personalized outreach, help with meeting prep based on deep insights into the client’s business, record and summarize each conversation with a client and automatically update CRM with the notes and next steps, update the forecast and send alerts when deals are at risk, coach and role play with reps based on client specific scenarios and so much more.
With AI embedded and integrated into these major platforms, all these “features” are now real and live today.
So, if you’re a sales rep with strong sales fundamentals, business acumen, and adaptability skills these agents and AI tools could make you insanely efficient, valuable and help make you a LOT of money.
And therein lies the problem with all of this (in my opinion).
There's an old saying in sales: "Better, Faster, Cheaper. You can have 2 but not all three."
It’s the same thing with Sales Fundamentals, Business Acumen, and Adaptability.
I’m not saying you can’t have all three, I’m saying most don’t.
The younger generations of Sales tend to lack the sales fundamentals and business acumen, especially since we’ve over-engineered the sales process over the past 10 years and focused on training reps on the tech and the process instead of the fundamentals.
Yes, AI can coach these reps and perform role plays that seem lifelike. It can even give reps talking points and objection-handling techniques on the spot while they’re talking to the client.
BUT, without the context that experience and fundamentals bring, a talking point or technique is just that. They aren’t going to help reps have authentic conversations with clients. And these days, clients can smell inauthentic sellers from a mile away.
The good news is that the younger sales generation is definitely adaptable and is also tech-first so hopefully, they can use AI to expedite that real-world experience.
On the other hand, the older generation usually has the fundamentals and business acumen but they aren’t very adaptable or willing to change.
I mean shoot, I still use Microsoft Word, carry a physical notepad when I meet with people in person, and think rap died with Tupac and Biggie.
Once you’re past a certain age, it’s really hard to change your process and how you do things. (p.s. Microsoft, please stop asking me if I want to check out the new version of Outlook. I don’t).
In my training, I usually ask how many people are leveraging AI for the basics like preparing for meetings, researching personas, reviewing 10ks, etc.
AT MOST 25% of reps say they are. And it's almost always the younger sales reps that have their hands up.
It’s rare to see a GenXer (like myself) or above raise their hands and tell me how they’re using new tech and tools like AI.
Why does all of this matter? I don’t think we have the option anymore of having only 2 out of the 3 (sales fundamentals, business acumen and adaptability).
I don’t have a true “tactical tip” for this but I have some strong recommendations for those sales professionals out there who want to survive and thrive in this new world of AI.
For the younger generation - focus on the fundamentals of sales and do everything you can to improve your business acumen.
If you want to know how, ask ChatGPT. I’m not kidding. Cut and paste this post into ChatGPT and then tell it which group you fall into and ask it how to improve.
For the older generation - I am begging you to start spending time learning and using some of these tools and be open to change.
Put 30 minutes on your calendar every morning to try some new tech or use some of the new AI tools and just start getting curious.
When I started typing this section of the newsletter I wasn’t expecting it to be a pitch but this is exactly what I’m trying to address with my JB Sales Membership.
If you want to join, reply to this email or DM me and I’ll give you a 50% discount on any individual membership (which I’ve never done by the way because I hate discounting). I'll be honoring this discount till Friday (Sep 27th) - message me or Aneesh (my head of partnerships) if you want in.
Regardless of whether or not you invest in my training or anyone else's for that matter, make sure you're investing in yourself and addressing the weakest of the 3 characteristics I’ve been talking about.
Average is no longer an option.
SALES RESOURCES:
GetAbstract (not sponsored)
Staying on the topic of business acumen, this is something we can all level up on since the business world is constantly evolving.
One of the ways to do this is by reading some of the best business books out there.
Not only can you extract the knowledge of successful people and learn from their mistakes but you can also strike up conversations with others who have read them which helps build rapport.
You all know I’m not exactly a Rhodes Scholar. I went to a State School (Go Terps!), drank my way through four years of college and have probably read about 10 fiction books in my life.
BUT….I’ve read almost every business book out there and can have a conversation about them with almost anyone.
How you might ask?
I found this app a long time ago called GetAbstract. Originally it was an app that gave you a 5 page summary (or audio) of every non-fiction book out there with the key take-aways and talking points for each.
I just looked back at their website and they’ve come a long way and are now focused on microlearning which looks incredible.
Let me be clear, this is not a sponsor pitch. I have zero affiliation with GetAbstract. I share it with you because it’s a great way to level up your business acumen without much effort.
SALES FROM THE STREETS:
My conversation with my Uber driver
With all the traveling and running around this week, I took a LOT of Uber/Lyft rides.
When I get into an Uber or Lyft I tend to say hi to the driver, ask them how their day is going, engage in some polite conversation and then put my earbuds in so I can get some work done for the rest of the ride.
This time was a little different.
I was heading into Boston to hang out with my new Head of Partnerships/Agent, Aneesh.
When the Lyft driver picked me up we did the typical intro stuff mentioned above but this time I didn’t put my earbuds in.
As we were driving out of my neighborhood he said “it looks like a lot of people in your neighborhood have solar.”
It wasn’t a question but it prompted me to explain how we were one of the first in the neighborhood to get them and then it was like a ripple effect and everyone else started to get them.
He then mentioned that along with being an Lyft driver, he also sold solar panels door to door.
I have nothing but respect for door to door salespeople since I think it’s one of the most brutal sales jobs there is.
As the conversation continued he told me how transparent he was with his customers and how he would never sell them a system that wasn’t a fit or try to convince them to lease when they should buy. He even shared with them how he gets paid and what his commission is for each type of sale.
He went on to explain how this approach builds trust with the client and he’s gotten a lot of great feedback. (My friend Todd Caponi would be proud)
However, he also explained how frustrated he was that other sales reps at the company were doing way better than him by lying to the customer about incentives and even telling the client that they’re from the State Electric company, not the Solar company they work for.
This got me fired up and engaged in the conversation. So much so that I had to record it. You can listen to a portion of it here.
His approach aligned with mine from the day I got into Sales. I have a true disdain for sleazy, lying sales reps who try to use questionable tactics to convince people to buy things they don’t really need.
I’ve been frustrated for the majority of my sales career seeing people who take this approach making 10X (no pun intended, you know who you are) what I make.
However, with everything I’ve ever sold, I’ve genuinely believed that the product or service I was representing made a real difference for the right person/client.
To me, making a difference is far more valuable than any commission check I would have gotten by taking shortcuts and screwing people over.
If you don’t believe your product/service/solution makes a real difference, I beg you to go find something else to sell.
ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME
- The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?
- The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)
- The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.
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