Growing Your B2B Small Business with Robert Poole

How to Identify and Hire Top Salespeople

Hiring top salespeople is one of the most difficult things small business owners do. In this episode, we are going to talk about the top 5 things that superstar salespeople have that mediocre salespeople don't. Then we are going to talk about how to use these attributes to hire the right people.

Creating Recurring Income for Your Business

So what’s one of the biggest problems with generating revenue? Consistency. How would you like to create a recurring revenue stream, regardless of your product or service? In this episode, we are going to let you in on the secret to making money while you sleep. You  can also view the video version on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/3fw1gVflr3M

The 5 Chemicals You Must Trigger to Sell Anything

Have you as a consumer ever bought something even though you didn't feel great about it, didn’t like the salesperson, but you felt you needed it so you bought it in spite of the salesperson? The reason you didn’t enjoy it is because the salesperson didn’t sell you the correct way.  Check out this episode on how to get your customers to enjoy buying from your company so much that they start referring their friends before they even use your product or service! You can also watch the video ve...

Supercharge your Sales Conversion with Effective Closing

In this podcast episode i'm teach you how to effectively close deals and get those sweet, sweet conversions. Below are the key topics I talk about in this episode.   1. “I'll Think About It…” Have you ever heard the classic objection in sales, “I’ll think about it”? That is a sign the prospect is nervous to move forward.   2. Sales Gurus Maybe you can relate to what I was experiencing. Maybe you have listened to all the sales gurus and all their slick techniques, but it still isn’t wor...

Change Prospects Beliefs and Get Them to Love Buying From You

When I started out in B2B sales as a young man in my 20s, I learned all I could about selling techniques. I learned all the classic sales techniques, even things like the “Ben Franklin” close. For many years I struggled as I tried to implement a lot of techniques that sales trainers taught. I memorized scripts, learned about how to close people with techniques like scarcity and urgency, but it was an uphill battle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the prospect’s whole demeanor chan...

Get More Sales By Understanding the Difference Between Marketing and Sales

Understanding what Marketing and Sales actually are and how to use them allows you to minimize mistakes and the squandering of resources. It’s simple, easy to understand and implement, yet powerful in drastically increasing your sales. When you understand the difference then you can apply it to knowing which one to use at what stage in customer acquisition. By knowing what tactic to use at what time, gives you clarity, consistency and will skyrocket your sales with minimal mistake costs. H...

3 Critical Components to Successfully Sell Anything

If you are like me, then you understand the importance of revenue and sales to a business. Without sales, businesses fail. I struggled for a long time to increase sales and close deals. However, by learning about the three critical components that are essential for any sale, I was able to successfully sell anything. When you use these 3 critical components in your business you will be able to… Increases conversions and sales Changes your company from transactional to relationship based Re...

What Happens To Me Happens For Me

What Happens to Me, Happens for Me

Business challenges are expected and we can deal with them. What about the more serious, catastrophic, or even just “bad things” we encounter? How do we keep from getting totally derailed in our business?

If I gave you $100, would you give me $10

Have you ever implemented a new tactic that seemed like it was really paying off well, but then you wake up a year later and realize it’s not coming close to what you thought it would? Or even worse, you are actually losing money? I know I have.  It comes down to effectively evaluating return on investment, both with hard dollars and the not so easy to quantify use of resources.  Listen to this episode to find out how to keep this from slowing you down and vastly increase the speed of your...

Getting Through to B2B Decision Makers Part 2 - Offline Methods

Have you ever thought, “If I could only get through the gatekeeper, I know I could sell the decision maker?” Getting through to decision makers is the Holy Grail of marketing and sales. It’s critical, but it also happens to be difficult. Let’s talk about some techniques to get through gatekeepers, particularly when you are selling high ticket items that aren’t an online click a button type of sale.

Getting Through to B2B Decision Makers Part 1 - Online Methods

What is the number one problem small business owners and salespeople face when it comes to getting sales and generating revenue? It’s not how competitive our product or service is, and it’s not our marketing or sales presentations.  It comes down to the most critical but most difficult part of the marketing and sales process - getting in front of decision makers who have the need, resources to afford our product or service, and the authority to make a decision. Without this, we will be get...

The Best PhD You Can Get For Making Money

Have you ever had someone tell you or thought, “you know, I need to go back to school to learn more. That way I will make more money? That might be true for an employee in corporate America. For us business owners, however, there is only one degree that matters and will make us money in the long run. Unfortunately, it can cost us a lot more than the cost of a Harvard PhD if we are not careful.  Check out this episode to find out how to earn this degree without going broke.

Preventing Buyer's Remorse

Have you ever bought something and then said to yourself shortly after, “why did I buy that?” Then you returned it or felt duped you bought it? This is classic buyer’s remorse. We’ve all experienced it in our personal lives. Buyer’s remorse can cause us to lose a lot of money in the short term, but the long term damage is much worse. Listen to find out how we can prevent buyer’s remorse.

Get Your Prospects High

We all do drugs. Yes, even you. A lot of drugs are bad for you. The ones you manufacture in your brain are natural and even more effective than illicit drugs. If you want your customers to love buying from you and get an actual physical high during the process, you need to help them trigger the release of the drugs in their brain that all humans love.

How To Be Effective On a "Bad Day"

Ever had a time when things were just clicking, you were kicking butt at work, and you felt on top of the world? What about the opposite? You woke up grumpy, everything was going wrong, you didn’t want to go to work, or you felt like giving up. How effective are you at work on those “bad days”? More importantly, how do you make sure you don’t have too many of those “bad days” to start off with?

B2B Sales Is NOT Emotional (or is it?)

B2B sales is all about logical, dollars and cents analysis of options, right? All selling is emotionally based. It doesn’t matter if it is selling to consumers or to sophisticated business owners and executives. Listen to this episode and I’ll prove this to be true.

The 3 Types of Objections and How to Overcome Them

Ever feel like you are playing ping pong going back and forth trying to convince a customer to buy your product or service? The reason for this is rooted in objections and how sometimes we almost ask for prospects to question us. Let’s talk about the three major types of objections or reasons people resist buying and how to overcome them and make the sale.

Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS) and Mastering Boredom

Have you ever found yourself chasing too many ideas, businesses, or strategies, and realized later that you are spread too thin and accomplished none of them? This is called Shiny Object Syndrome. The question is how do we avoid this pitfall and keep our focus on the things that really matter. Let's talk about some ideas to mitigate distraction.

Where Most Of the Money Is Made

As entrepreneurs and salespeople, we tend to focus on closing the big deal, getting the sale, and going after the “low hanging fruit.” While this is important, we are ignoring where most of the money is actually made if we focus just on this. Listen to find out where that money is.

Simplicity Is the Key to Making Money

Have you ever looked at a business’s website and thought, “...what do they actually do?” Often, we assume our prospects speak the same language we do, and we overcomplicate both our communication and our solution, turning off a lot of prospects before we even have a chance to sell them. Listen to find out how to remedy and use communication to grow your business.

Gentlemen, This Is a Football

Do you sometimes feel like you are running 24/7 without coming up for air in your business? This is a dangerous place to be which will eventually put you out of business. How do you prevent this from destroying your business and continually grow?

How to Prepare for Covid-20 (or the next crisis)

What happens when Covid-20 hits (or the next economic crisis)? Why have so many businesses failed in the last year and why did some of us survive? Most importantly, how do we prepare for the next crisis? It’s not an if, it’s a when.

Bridging the Gap in Client Expectations and Yours

What’s one of the biggest reasons clients and customers are dissatisfied? They have totally different expectations and perceptions of your products or service than you do. How do we bridge this gap and turn disgruntled clients into raving fans? Listen to this episode to find out more. 

Appointments, Appointments, Appointments...Right? (Part 2)

So you got the appointment with the prospect. What now? How do you turn this appointment into a sale? How do you maximize your time and process to take advantage of your appointment and grow your business. This is part two on how to do this. Take a listen.

Appointments, Appointments, Appointments...Right? (Part 1)

When it comes to B2B, we are all focused on getting in front of our prospects. If you are successful, that’s only the first step. What do you do after setting an appointment, and how do you maximize your effectiveness? This is part one of what and how to do this. Take a listen.

Don't Be Hatin' - Dealing with Jerks

Ever had someone call your office and go off on your team or you? Or maybe bravely post a really nasty review or social media post? These people are a fact of business and life, but the question is how do we deal with them. Listen to find out how.

Don't Be Afraid of Feedback-Be Afraid of No Feedback

Ever been nervous to reach out to a client and ask them what they think of your service or product? Sometimes, it’s easier to stick our heads in the sand. Why? It’s tough to hear both haters nasty and loud opinions, and sometimes it’s equally tough to hear the truth.  Hater or truther, you can’t ignore feedback as it’s one of the best tools we have. So HOW do we get constructive feedback from our clients that we can implement to grow our B2B small business? 

Fire Your Clients (well, some of them)-Part-2

So you don’t like some of your clients, and would like to fire them? What do you do? If you realize you have some(or all) of the wrong clients, how do you get rid of them, and how do you actually attract the right clients? Listen to find out how you can rid your business of the wrong clients and replace them with the ones that will be a pleasure to work with and reduce the stress in your life.

Fire Your Clients (well, some of them)-Part-1

Do you hate some of your clients (or at least dislike them)? That means you are attracting and selling to the wrong people. Yes, it’s simple as that. One of the biggest stresses in our business is dealing with clients who we don’t like and don’t share the same values with. Listen to find out how you can wake up and look forward to interacting with your clients. Highlights Having unpleasant clients is not a requirement in business. Do your best to not attract and take on clients that you d...

The Right Way to Get Quality Referrals

Have you ever been asked by a salesperson after a sale, “Hey, who do you know who would be interested in my product?”. That has to be one of the most annoying and ineffective ways of getting referrals. Let’s talk about how to do it right. Highlights There are strong and weak referrals. A good referral is an introduction to a prospect that has some trustworthy source that is qualified and is looking for a solution like yours. Trust is critical and there are many ways to build trust. Time,...

Intentional Culture

Is company “Culture” a fluff statement? I used to think so. We all have a culture in our company, whether we realize it or not. The real question is, is that culture intentional and has your team bought in to it? Culture can either sink your business or turn on the afterburners of growth in your company. Highlights Culture is the unwritten rules that the members have about values and beliefs in the company. At first, Robert discounted the importance of culture in business. He saw large co...

Use Spock's Vulcan Mind-Meld

I’m not that smart. Neither are you. Most of us have heard of modeling as a way to shortcut success by learning from those more successful than us. What if there was a way to hyper accelerate this modeling to go even faster and achieve success quicker? Highlights A mastermind is a group of peers that are all trying to learn or improve in the same thing. Robert had tried some different types of masterminds and didn’t find too much value at first. They mostly seemed like support or networki...

You Know More Than You Think

Hero Interview: Jack Eames-Choose Your Partners Wisely

Be Creative and Broke or a Copycat and Rich

The Fanatics, the Ambivalent, and the Disgruntled

Tell Me a Story

Story telling is a critical strategy in the sales process. In this episode we outline a 4 step process to building stories and give examples of ways that good and bad stories can influence a prospect. Highlights A good story can get the brain to search for similarities to something in your own life. The brain needs things delivered in a story format. Without the story the brain has to search and create one and things can get confusing. In the absence of a great story the prospect will c...

The Difference Between Mediocre and Top Salespeople

There are 5 traits that separate a poor or average salesperson from a top producer. In this episode we go through each trait offering explanations and examples. Highlights The same sales skills that make a great salesperson are the same skills that leave you feeling satisfied after a purchase. The skill set is the difference between poor sales and top sales people. Sales is a skill that must be learned. Top 5 sales skills, focused on prospecting, focused on the customer, great story tell...

Clark Kent and the Phonebooth

In this episode, we talk about the critical nature of understanding the identity of the prospects that you are selling to and how to think about shifting their identity in a way that aligns with your offer. Highlights Sales and marketing process of Hook, Story, and Offer. The Hook is something that gets the prospect’s attention.  The Story is where you get the prospect to think about the product in some way that relates to them. Telling them that you understand their problem and you can ...

Go All Hollywood (or at least model them)

Hollywood uses marketing techniques to promote projects far in advance of the release date and this is a great strategy for businesses to use to grow awareness and create a strong launch. Highlights With most companies, their customers heard about a new product or campaign the day it was released. The more people that buy a product or service the more opportunity there is for word of mouth. Hollywood starts their pre-release campaign a year or more in advance. Start talking about the co...

Is Cold Calling Dead?

Let's talk about the current state of cold calling for consumers and businesses, some of the reasons that cold calling is still a good prospecting technique, and the value of outsourcing to professional telemarketers. Highlights You should always be asking if you are prospecting in a relevant way.  Telemarketing directly to consumers is pretty much dead. Calling businesses is still an effective method for prospecting. Outsourcing your B2B cold calling can be a great way to generate lea...

Stop Wasting Your Most Valuable Personal Asset

This episode is about the importance of managing time in your daily activities as a leader. Keep focused on revenue generating activities and find a way to delegate or outsource tasks to free up critical time. Highlights Most of us spend too much time on non-revenue producing activities. Some people spend 50 to 60 percent of their day on non-revenue generating activities. Should be spending 70% or more of time on things that generate revenue. Sometimes outsourcing is like giving yoursel...

Making an Offer the Customer Can't Refuse

How do we create an irresistible offer for our product or service? Let's talk about common reasons that a buyer will reject an offer and some strategies for building an irresistible offer. Highlights Why don’t prospects buy? They Don’t trust you. They don’t see the value. They don’t want to make a poor decision. Having a great offer solves many problems and makes running the business easier. Find ways to increase the perceived value of the service or product.  Make an offer low risk or...

Be a Slacker. Really.

For all the entrepreneurs and type A personalities - quit trying to achieve perfection. Listen for some strategies to manage perfection when working toward goals. Highlights It is ok to fall short of perfection. Insisting on perfection is bad but focusing on perfection is good. Focusing on perfection to learn to improve then it can be a positive. If we demand perfection before finishing the goal it can slow the process down and even prevent it from ever being achieved. Be sure to have ...

Focus On This and You'll Be Out of Business

It can be very easy to fall into the trap of building your business with straw instead of brick.  In this episode we discusses short-term thinking versus long term thinking and why it is critical to focus on the long-term consequences of every decision. Highlights If you build a business that is weak on fundamentals you will be in trouble or out of business when market issues occur. Short term thinking are things like, “we need this deal because we need cash”. Decisions that are for now ...

Revenue and New Customers Are All That Matters, Right?

Why it is important to understand the difference between revenue, profit, cash flow, and net cash in the bank? This understanding is critical to a successful business, but it's not as simple as it seems. Listen to find out more. Highlights Revenue and sales are obviously critical. The market votes on your idea by using their wallet. Revenue is cash that customers pay to you. Profit is a theoretical number and should be used as an indicator. What really matters is cash in the bank vs de...

Sell Benefits, Not Features, Right? Wrong.

Episode Summary In this episode, Robert talks about what you should be talking about with clients instead of the traditional features and benefits-based sale.  Highlights  At some point almost everyone that works at a company is called upon to explain what the company does.  Poor salespeople will focus on features. Good salespeople focus on the benefits to the prospect. How the features actually help the prospect. Many people will try to convert your benefits back to your competitors a...

Get a New Employee Profitable Quickly

In this episode, Robert talks about onboarding new hires quickly so that they become an asset quickly so that they can add to the bottom line instead of being an expense. He discusses a new system that his company has recently tried with great success. Highlights It can be difficult to convince people to take the time to explain or capture their role in a way that is efficient. There are consequences of not cross training and having multiple people that can do each role. If someone leaves...

Be Premium, Not Bargain

Episode Summary In this episode, Robert talks about the trap of competing on price, the consequences of the strategy, and how to really position your company to grow.   Highlights If you are the low-price leader, it can attract the wrong types of clients to the business. Most of them are not clients that can grow your business.  If your offering is good, then you should charge for it. Charging less devalues the offering. Some buyers get nervous when they see a low price. It can evoke th...