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What is The Tao of Sales Babble? #477 If you've been listening to this podcast for a while you've probably had a vague question about Taoism. It probably doesn't keep you up at night but you know Pat's been talking about it for nearly two years. Given the Chinese music and Chinese names you probably know it's from China. And you probably know it was written by an old guy name Lao Tzu.  But anything beyond that, you haven't a clue. Given your interest in the Tao of Sales Babble, it only makes sense that take a moment and teach you just a little bit about the source material. What is Taoism? That's the topic for today.    How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net

Chasing Money Chases Away Sales #476 What do they say, money isn’t everything but everything needs money? And then there’s the converse. Author Margaret Bonnano said,  “Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.”  These are two extremes. One is the yin, one is the yang. Yet  the Tao teaches us to travel to the center and search for equilibrium. Sometimes, myself included, I’ve let my hunger for a commission screw up my thinking and screwed up a deal. Sometimes chasing money, chases away sales. So it begs the question, where is that perfect balance between being totally money driven vs pure altruism? Chasing money, that’s the topic for today. Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net

How To Make Quota Without Hurry #475 We live in an impatient world. Everybody wants everything done in a New York minute. It’s gotten to be that every desire is considered a ticking time bomb that must be disarmed right now. But this is the thing, our desires are not that important. What blows up in our face is the disappointment that we didn’t get what we wanted.  Lao Tzu said that "Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished." . So how can we make quota if we don’t hurry? That’s the topic for today. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net

Why Competition is Not Your Enemy #474 One big issue I have with the selling profession is the pervasive view that competition is a zero-sum game where there are only winners and losers. These  people believe that for them to succeed, someone else must fail which leads to a fear of being on the losing side. This kind of fear can be detrimental to success. It undercuts confidence and creates unrealistic expectations. Losing is a losing proposition and viewing your competition as the enemy is a slippery slope towards failure. Today we investigate how your greatest competitor is not your competitor, it’s something else. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net  

How To Know When a Buying Sign is Not a Buying Sign #473 I don't know about you but more than once I’ve lied to myself that I was going to close a deal.  I would invent a story that the prospect was showing buying signs like asking good questions, explaining how they could use it in their situation, and sharing they want to make a decision quickly. But when all is said and done,  they never committed, never bought  and I never really I had a chance because I was  fooling myself. In fact I purposely avoided questions that could have  shed light on their hesitancy.  But like I said I was a fool. Now  The Tao talks about the risk of overvaluing and delves deep into the pitfalls  of attachment and  the troubles that come when things don't work out. These days I'm all about being honest Which brings us to today's topic:  When is a buying sign not a buying sign?   How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buye

Is AI Ready for Sales and Marketing? With Brian Basilico #472 Today we take a break from the Tao Te Ching to revisit artificial intelligence. We ask the question is AI ready for sales and marketing. Our guest for this episode is Brian Basilico. Brian is an award-winning author of the best selling book “It’s Not About You, It’s About Bacon! Relationship Marketing In A Social Media World!” and his latest book, "Toilet Paper Math!”. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net

The Power of Silence in a Discovery Call #471 Do you know why libraries are always so quiet? It’s because they have a lot of SHHHHelf-awareness. Can the same be said for you? Today we talk about the power of silence. Pause for a second.   Another second. Did that quiet make you uncomfortable? Did you wonder “is this episode broke? Did Pat screw up? He is pretty fallible. He does make a lot of mistakes.”  Is that what you are thinking? Lao Tze said silence is the source of great strength and the greatest sound is the sound of silence. Today we embrace that paradox, and we speak about silence.   How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net

The Babble That Can Be Said is Not the Tao of Sales Babble #470 Does this Tao of Sales Babble seem too preachy? Gushing and dogmatic about listening and patience and being a good friend to perfect strangers? If you’re a bit skeptical about all this wu wei, good for you. You should be! What we’re talking about here is not prescriptive. There isn’t a script that says if this happens go right and if that happens go left. There’s more nuance than words can say. The Tao of Sales Babble is more than that, and that’s the topic for today. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is deeply understanding what buyers need, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is both good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com This is a production of Habanero Media https://habaneromedia.net  

Looking For Deals In All The Wrong Places #469 Are you looking for love in all the wrong places? Looking for deals in too many faces? As markets come and go, it’s easy to get an achy breaky heart. But sometimes, through no fault of our own, what used to work, stops working. If there’s one thing the Tao Te Ching has repeatedly told us is that nothing lasts and the world is in constant change. So , if we  continue to do, what we’ve always done, and expect to get  different results, that's insanity according  Einstein. Which is why it would be wise for us to take the  sweet Urban Cowboy lyrics of Johnny Lee to heart and mix things up. Sure you may get a bluebird every now and then but maybe it would make more sense to sniff out opportunities in new markets like a bird dog flushes out pheasants. Looking for deals, that’s the topic for today.   How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you

The Peril of Over Confidence When Selling #468 Have you ever let your ego get ahead of your success? Like that day you boasted you can eat anything. You agreed to accept the "habanero pepper challenge" but quickly found they were too hot to handle, burning your mouth and throat and then spent the next hour drinking buckets of water to soothe the pain? We've all been there right? Oh you've never done that? Well I have and I’ve let this kind of overconfidence selling screw up business too.  How do you avoid arrogance when selling? That's the topic for today.   How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, g

The Way of AI and ChatGPT in Sales #467 Today instead of noodling on what the old master Lao Tze says about the Tao of Sales Babble we’re going to babble about a huge breakthrough this winter,   Artificial Intelligence or AI. Why? Let me make a bold statement: Not since crypto has there been a disruptive innovation at this level. In this episode we zero in on how to use AI and ChatGPT in sales. Your Obedient ChatGPT AI Virtual Assistant It’s been all over the news and you may have heard all about this AI stuff. Yet I’m surprised that I keep meeting people who haven’t a clue about this breakthrough. This winter I’ve been playing with these systems so I thought I would share a bit about what I’ve learned and how I’ve been applying it to sales. ChatGPT is an AI chatbot system, similar to those little boxes on the far right bottom on websites that ask you questions but never gives you good answers. OpenAI the company that made ChatGPT released it to show off and test what a very large, powerful AI system can acco

How to Dispel Anger with Difficult Prospects #466 Have you ever wanted to throttle a prospect despite the fact you know it would kill the deal? And then luckily you found some composure and  decided to hide from them rather than to become one of them?  That’s not a solution. The entire science of selling is based around finding an agreement on an exchange of value. Pissing off your prospects is the surest path to pissing away your career! So what’s a seller to do when dealing with a difficult client? That’s the topic for today.   How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning

Why Action Speaks Louder than Words #465 There's a lot of sales babble out there that it takes a big personality and fast talking to be good at sales. There’s also a lot of people who think sales is a yucky business and avoid dealing with sales people as best they can. I get why people feel that way. Consider all the  myths in movies like the Wolf On Wall Street.. But in real life, it’s just not true. Buyers like to buy but they hate to be sold. These days, great sellers show what they have and their actions speak louder than words. That’s the topic for today.   Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, ups

Supple Selling for Sales Success  #464 Today we investigate flexible selling. For example, we don’t let little kids drink out of glass. Why? Because if they drop it, it will shatter in a million pieces. But what happens when a child drops a plastic sippy cup?  It bounces!  They're soft and supple and last forever. In fact your child will outgrow it before it wears out.   But what’s this got to do with sales? What can a flexible supple accident forgiving  sippy cup teach us? That’s the topic for today. Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation, copywriting, and most impo

How To Do First Things First When Selling #463 Have you ever been in a situation where a small mistake in the beginning messed up a deal at the end? This happens when you get impatient and try  to skip steps and push a little too hard. I just learned this the other day that impatience  is really entitlement. It’s thinking “how dare that prospect not sign on the dotted line “.  So it begs the question, what makes you so important? Who are you to make decisions for your prospects? Isn’t it their money they’re spending? Isn’t their problem they want to solve? Look I get it.  I know these mistakes because  I’ve made them myself and sadly it never goes well. What’s difficult is not overdoing it and finding that balance. That’s the topic for today Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve in

Master Selling is NOT a Numbers Game #462 Have you heard the idea that the more no’s you get the more yeses you will hear? This notion is based on the idea that sales is a numbers game. It teaches that the path to success is getting comfortable with constant rejection and hitting on everybody you meet hoping you’ll bump into a qualified lead. So it begs the question. When it comes to sales, is this the best strategy for lead generation a numbers game? Maybe sometimes? Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation, copywriting, and most important the right selling mindset. S

How to Take the Good with the Bad When Selling #461 Have you ever tried to bend a deal to your will only to have it break? This is something humans do all the time, thinking that we can will nature to do our bidding. This is not the case. Savvy sellers know that winter follows fall, fall follows summer and summer follows spring. Like farmers, they understand their sale cycles like phases of the moon. How do we adopt this point of view as sellers? 9That’s the topic for today. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation, copyw

Selling With No Assumptions #460 Have you ever tried to sell a prospect something they really don’t want? Did you do it because it’s the only thing you have that’s remotely close to what the buyer needs?  This is a terrible position to be in, right?  Lao Tzu teaches that the Master has no mind of their own, only the mind of the people. We do this by not assuming and adopting a helpful attitude. How do we sell with no assumptions? That’s the topic for today. Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation, copywriting, and most important the right selling mindset. Stop fearing

How to Unstuck Stuck Deals #459 Ever have a deal that won't move forward and you’re not sure what to do? You don’t want to call it a lost deal. It's not exactly dead but it’s frustrating, right? You're working with an advocate in the organization and they're onboard.  But that's not true for everyone in the organization. You don’t have to be Lao Tzu to know that failing to adapt has profound consequences. So what’s a seller to do to unstuck stuck deals? That’s the topic for today. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value propositions, presentations, demos, closing, generating referrals, earning references, upselling, marketing, lead generation,

2023 Sales Planning and Goals Show #458 Welcome to the Sales Babble annual Sales Planning and Goals Show. I'm a strong proponent for yearly goal setting. Some laugh at New Year's resolutions.  They think they are silly or something that you should do at other times of the year and I agree it's an ongoing process. But January 1st is a good chance to take a moment, give pause and to  reflect on what really matters to you. Life is brief and it's important to not squander a day. To live the next year with intent and being mindful of your aspirations is noble cause. 2023 sales planning is our topic for today. How to Connect with Pat Helmers at Sales Babble Sales Babble shares selling secrets for non-sellers.  Masterful selling is understanding what buyers want, discerning if you can help,  showing what you have and helping them to make a decision that is good for their business and yours. See https://salesbabble.com I’ve interviewed 100s of sales experts and discuss all things sales: prospecting, qualifying, value