NobodyLikesItCold

Do you ever sit at your desk staring at a person's name, or LinkedIn profile just wondering what you should say to them, and how you should communicate? Do you ever wish you could find someone at one of your prospect companies that is just like you, with a similar personality to you? Do you ever leave a meeting thinking... WTF was the other person talking about?  Why don't they understand me? Enter Drew D'Agostino and Crystal.  Crystal is what happens when big data and machine learning meet psychology and is manifested in an app tuned for selling.  Crystal is built to help all of us communicate more effectively. In this podcast Drew breaks down, how Crystal works and where the tech is going. Crystal profiles are based on the DISC system which you can learn more about at www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc/overview  I highly encourage you to check your profile on Crystal and see what she thinks of you.  You can check it out at www.crystalknows.com 

In this episode I hang out with Adam who is the founder and CEO of Spiro. Spiro is a cool new app designed help sales pro's be more productive. Sometimes in sales the only thing getting in the way of success is just showing up and doing the work.  Spiro attempts to solve for this by incorporating humor, science the best practices of your team. Spiro is a lot like Adam; clever, funny and logical. If your looking for a fun way to be more organized and also avoid the mind numbing nausea of entering data into Salesforce.com than have a listen to this show and give Spiro a try. You can get Spiro at: www.spirohq.com 

In this episode Michael breaks down a lot of the lessons learned from growing a start-up from within a large global tech company. Some of the key segments include: Segmenting your market Finding disruptive CIO's Organizing your team Competing with Steve Balmer Consumerization of IT QBR's vs. time in the field Hearing the voice of the customer ... even when there is 5 layers between you and them How to tell your mom you're in sales... and not have her freak.

In this episode Jill lays out a clear and concise definition of social selling. She shares her personal transformation from an individual sales contributor to a globally recognized evangelist for an important new trend in selling. Jill also breaks down the future of selling based on how we need to communicate with a younger generation that has grown up social and plugged in. As a pro who has seen a similar transformation in marketing happen she has an interesting perspective. Jill also references the research by Scott Brinker and his publication for CMO’s which can be found at www.chiefmartec.com Jill also calls out some cool Canadian start-ups NUDGE and VIDYARD EH.

This episode is loaded with amazing advice for entrepreneurs, sales leaders, sales pros and marketers. Mark breaks down how to hire your first sales rep, how to hire your first sales VP and how to get over your first your first carcass of a VP Sales. Mark shares strategies for finding your first customers .... (it helps if they are bleeding from the neck) and also how to use a micro vertical roll out strategy - fancy words for targeting similar customers. We get into the emotion of selling, and how to be successful by selling less. Mark also covers land and expand vs. true enterprise deals as well as Missionary vs. Mercenary selling and the appropriate timing for each discipline.

Mike Derezin - A man of value   “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value” Albert Einstein   This is my first ever podcast and a very special one for me as Mike hired me into LinkedIn and lead the group I worked in. In this episode Mike talks about the origin of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator product and the company’s new focus on elevating the sales professional.   Mike talks about how the key metrics for analyzing sales performance need to change and also introduces LinkedIn’s social selling index which is an indicator of how effectively you are using LinkedIn in your selling efforts. Mike reveals how he got started in sales and also why general management and or strategy consulting may be a better background for the modern sales sales leader. If you listen to the end you’ll even hear Mike stump me with my own question. If you still use Twitter you can follow Mike at @mikedfresh