Make It Happen Mondays - B2B Sales Talk with John Barrows

133: Barriers To Successful Prospecting With Matt Green

This week we’re pleased to welcome Matt Green to the podcast. Matt’s building an amazing community of sales, CS and marketing professionals in Chicago with Sales Assembly and is always learning from what they’re doing to crush their market. Matt shares his take on what they’re doing well and how he see’s the ways prospecting has changed recently… In this episode you'll learn: Prospecting inside of communities The balance of automation in prospecting Building business acumen and shari...

132: The Art of Closing A Deal With Danny Read

This week we're pleased to have an award winning sales rep on the podcast. You may remember back at Dreamforce, Chili Piper threw a competition judged by John Barrows and other sales leaders. The criteria to win was to tell the panel about a deal you closed against the odds, using teamwork and generating a great solution for the buyer a the same time. Enter Danny Read from G2 who was one of the winners. In this podcast, he talks us through the story of his deal and the hurdles he overcame. T...

131: Using Personality Types In Sales With Drew D'Agostino

Drew D'Agostino joins us on the podcast this week to share insight into the key personality types sales reps will encounter. Everyone is different, which means they respond well to different types of information. It's our job to understand this and make sure we put our best foot forward, with each type of person. Drew lifts the lid on some surprising data his tool has found... You'll learn: Giving Group Presentations Understanding Key Personality Types & What They Care About Thinking Li...

130: What World Class Sales Coaching Looks Like With Dave Kennett

We're pleased to welcome Dave Kennett to the podcast this week. Dave is the CEO of Replayz, helping sales reps learn the lessons they need to go through to be more successful. In this episode, Dave and John talk over what sales coaching looks like on a day to day level and what truly world class sales coaching looks like. Here's a hing, there's a big difference between what most companies do and what the best do!  In This Podcast You'll Learn: How Sales Coaching Actually Gets Done Which...

129: Trademarks of Top Sales Reps With Tom Williams

We're pleased to welcome DealPoint.io's CEO Tom Williams on the podcast. Tom joins us and brings a ton of ideas on how top sales reps can be their best-self and make those small tweaks that really make the difference. We're talking small tweaks to how you find the right prospects, how you run your calls and how you follow up. Nothing that any sales rep can't do. You'll learn: Establishing Transparency & Trust Finding Your Best Customers The “Mutual Action Plan” Follow Up & more

128: Decision Makers & Champions with Geoff Surkamer

Decision makers and champions are parts of a salesperson's everyday life. We're constantly reaching out to talk to decision makers or champions that can help us land that next deal and solve that problem or pain for a customer or client. But how do you spot genuine decision makers and champions? Geoff Surkamer joins us to help you learn: What a Champion Really Is The Path To Purchase Sophisticated vs Unsophisticated Buyers & More

127: Sales Careers & Values with Dave Crow

This week we're pleased to have Dave Crow from Seismic Software on the podcast. Dave and John met through their good friend Todd Caponi, who we recently had on the podcast too. Dave gave us a great view into how you can continuously evolve in sales and how to find your sweet spot, the area where you shine the most. Dave uses a candid conversation he had with an Intern of his as reference to how you can do this and do what you love, not just doing things for the title or pay. You'll learn: ...

126: Bridging The Sales & Marketing Divide with Dialpad

This week we're bringing you a 2 for 1. Dan O'Connell and Keith Messick from Dialpad join us representing sales and marketing respectively. We talked through how they bridge the classic sales and marketing divide that's been an issue for decades in B2B. These guys have some pretty interesting tactics and methods to help you hire people who are going to have that empathy which bridges the sales and marketing divide. You'll learn: How Dialpad qualifies leads Causes of the Sales & Marketing...

125: Setting Yourself Up for Sales Success with Jordan Arogeti

This week on the podcast, we're excited to welcome a baller on the sales team at SalesLoft, Jordan Arogeti. She's crushing it and is here to tell us about how she found her sweet spot in sales, how she picked the right company to work for and embraced their culture. This is one for the reps out there looking to build their career and also the managers who wants to hire and retain amazing talent to nurture.  In This Podcast You’ll Learn: Picking your companies you want to work for Work ...

124: Motivation, Goals & Ambition With Scott Leese

We're pleased to have a friend of the team on the podcast this week, Scott Leese. In this episode, Scott brings amazing insight into how he dealt with serious health issues and still climbed the ladder in his sales career, as well as how you can replicate his process. Stay tuned for: Mastering Motivation Climbing The Career Ladder From The Bottom Appreciation Vs Ambition & More

123: Finding Your Sweet Spot in a Sales Career with Amy Volas

This week we’ve pleased to have Amy Volas, CEO of Avenue Talent Partners on the podcast. Amy is experienced in the world of sales but has found her true calling in helping sales people and sales teams get recruitment right. In this episode, Amy and John go through what the journey of finding your true calling is like and how sales people out there can find the right roles for their sales career as a result. You'll learn: Finding Your True Calling in Your Career Trying Everything In A Sal...

122: The Difference Between Men & Women In Sales with Cynthia Barnes

This week we're pleased to have Cynthia Barnes on the podcast. Cynthia is helping women in sales reach the top 1% of their profession. But what are the differences between how men sell, and how women sell? If there are big differences, surely the training we all need should be different. Cynthia addresses how she finds women in sales working differently to men and how the results differ too... In this podcast, you’ll learn: Do Men & Women Sell Differently? Thoughts on Women Selling To ...

121: Using Sales Content In Meetings With Doug Winter

This week we're pleased to have Doug Winter on the podcast. Doug's the CEO of Seismic Software, with over 9 years of providing slicker sales enablement solutions to draw experience from and share with us. A lot of Doug's work is based around helping sales teams plan out their content that they can use in calls, but mapping out what content they already have and tweaking it is harder than it sounds...   In this podcast, you’ll learn: Sales Content Preparation Measuring Sales Content Imp...

120: Future Proofing Your Sales Career With Anita Nielsen

This week we have Anita Nielsen on the podcast. The Author of "Beat The Bots" has lots of thoughts on how sales is changing and the increasing role of technology in the profession. The average sales rep needs to change, because simple sales activities can become automated in years to come.  Highlights include: The Death of the Average Sales Rep Can You Teach Empathy? Future Proofing Your Sales Career & More!

119: The Beginning of a Sales Career With Lauren Bailey

You may have heard of GirlsClub, set up by Lauren Bailey to help coach and celebrate women in sales and their success’. This week Lauren is our guest on the podcast. Women in sales being one, getting a good start in your sales career and a look into why being a hunter in sales is harder now than ever… In this podcast, you’ll learn: 1 Actionable Way To Hire More Women In Sales Getting Off The Ground When Starting In Your Sales Career Why Being a Hunter In Sales Is Harder Now Than Ever &...

118: The Age of Product-Led Sales with Evan Lewis

Evan Lewis is our guest on the podcast this week, and he’s got some great stories to tell. He started his own company and talks openly about why it failed. After realizing why it happened, he doubled-down on learning sales and is now in the VC world. This was a killer episode. Highlights include: What VCs look for in a company to invest in Product-led sales vs product-centric sales Running a great product-led sales team The future of the SDR role  The future starting point in a sal...

118: The Age of Product-Led Sales with Evan Lewis

Evan Lewis is our guest on the podcast this week, and he’s got some great stories to tell. He started his own company and talks openly about why it failed. After realizing why it happened, he doubled-down on learning sales and is now in the VC world. This was a killer episode. Highlights include: What VCs look for in a company to invest in Product-led sales vs product-centric sales Running a great product-led sales team The future of the SDR role  The future starting point in a sal...

117: Leading A Growing Company With Suneera Madhani

This week we're proud to have Suneera Madhani on the podcast. Suneera earned her stripes as a sales person going door to door, working in a seriously difficult industry. She's now running her own company and shares with us the highs and lows of running her own growing team. Highlights include: Learning the hard way vs asking for help Controlling culture through change Challenging your team with honest conversation & More!

116: Sales Lessons From Coaching The Yankees With Coach Dana Cavalea

Former Yankees' Strength and Conditioning Coach Dana Cavalea joins us on the podcast this week to review where the similarities between elite athletes and business men and women exist. Highlights include: Building a successful mindset Staying on top of your game Getting out of a slump Using healthy motivation & More!

115: Under The Skin of Successful Salespeople With Mary Grothe

This week we have Mary Grothe, CEO of Sales BQ on the podcast. Mary is a sales trainer and keynote speaker who has an incredible drive to succeed in sales. In this podcast Mary talks about how she got into sales and used her own drive to blow her quota up and climb the career ladder. Highlights include: Behind Mary's motivation and passion Using BQ to dominate your market How to hire passionate people  How to manage passionate people & more!

114: Taking Charge of Your Sales Career With Sydney Sloan

This week we’re proud to have Sydney Sloan join us on the podcast. Sydney leads marketing at SalesLoft as their CMO. In this episode Sydney and John talk about what a sales career looks like right now and how you can climb the career ladder. Highlights include: Leveraging networks you didn't know about SDR and AE relationships First-time management Becoming a sales leader & More! 

113: The Inside View at High Growth Companies

We have 2 guests this week who have lived and breathed through every effort Looker have made to grow in the last 5 years. Talal Assir and Rafael Jara-Simkin link the Looker sales team with the sales engineering team and have scaled these teams together. Highlights from this episode include... The gap between sales and sales engineering How to hire passionate people What it's like every day in a high growth company How to find your niche in the market and nail it

112: Transparency in Sales with Todd Caponi

Author of "The Transparency Sale," Todd Caponi joins us this week to explore transparency in sales. Todd shares an amazing story of how he flipped an entire sales team's approach to selling in B2B by using complete transparency. Highlights include: Transparency in negotiation The SCARF model in sales How to stop hoping the buyer doesn't spot your product's flaws How to handle mentions of competitors with transparency

111: Supporting Women In Sales with Natalie Severino

Natalie Severino, VP Marketing at Chorus.ai joins us this week to talk about women in sales. It's a super hot topic right now and with good reason. Natalie shares her personal story of development, gaining leadership experience and laying the foundation for the next generation of women in sales. Listen for: How Natalie worked with a proactive mentor early in her career How women in sales are excelling Barriers to students taking up a career in sales What we can do to help bring mor...

110: The Changing Role of SDRs in Sales With Amir Reiter

Amir Reiter, CEO of CloudTask joins us this week to talk about SDRs, AEs and sales in general. We dig into where SDRs are going wrong, how the path to AE needs changing and much more in this episode. Highlights include: How Amir dreamed of running a business from his boat by aged 35 Amir's routes in sales, when SDRs did not fill your funnel for you Why disqualifying more leads is extremely powerful & More!

109: Building A Winning Sales Mentality & Growing With Sean Sheppard

My long-time friend, Sean Sheppard joins me to talk about: Being a 5-time Founder having successful exits The routes of a salesperson and their education How the sales profession has changed over the years The power of showing your true character How to get truthful responses by being a realist

108: James 'Say What Sales' Buckley

My friend and previous podcast guest, James 'Say What Sales' Buckley joins me to talk about: What happened after he opened up about previous struggles on the podcast Benefits and the power of building a personal brand Salesforce data quality Hosting the UnCrushed podcast Documenting your journey through video and writing  Letting your prospects find you Learning from History and other people Creating content without a studio

107: Katy Tynan - Talent and Engagement Consultant

Katy and John go all the way back to Thrive Networks. While they could have easily talked all-day, but we focused on keeping your teams happy and engaged. Some items discussed: Working with sales engineers Generational differences The amount of time it takes to form a habit  Creating routines around professional development  Finding motivation and making time for professional development Working with management and leadership development  What John is most proud of from Thriv...

106: Sam Jacobs - Founder of Revenue Collective

Sam Jacobs is the founder of Revenue Collective and host of the Sales Hacker Podcast. We chat about being a sales leader in 2019. Topics covered in this episode include Shrinking tenures of sales leaders The dangers of common equity vs preferred equity Best practices for setting up sales enablement What does an ideal severance package look like, and how can it promote good hires? How sales reps can support their executive team What matters when pitching an executive The most downlo...

105: Shawn Finder Autoklose

Shawn Finder, CEO & Co-Founder of Autoklose joins me to talk about: Meaningful personalizationHow sales reps can use impressions to their advantage and gain familiarity with their prospects  Using endorsements to gain the attention of your prospect Why I still leave voicemails Professional persistence vs annoying persistence  Earning time with your prospects If you press a button to start a campaign - you did not send 200 emails Persona vs personal driven messaging

104: Josh Braun Founder of Sales DNA

Josh Braun, former client and founder of Sales DNA joins me in a somewhat different episode. Normally before we start recording John and the guest will warm up and go over what we talk about on the podcast. This conversation was so good, and covers a story I've told often in training about going in prepared, we decided to leave it in to start the podcast. The "traditional" intro starts around the 21:35 mark getting into messaging and sales.

103: Kasey Jones - Marketing and Sales

Kasey Jones, is a marketing leadership coach and founder of A Better Jones, a demand gen agency that helps startups grow faster. Shifting from doing marketing at a large organization to early-stage company How marketing can learn from sales Having a sales or marketing background when you aren’t a daily seller or marketer B2Cization of B2B Marketing Importance of a face of your company What happens if your company won’t let you be social

102: Events with Brian Ludwig SVP at CVENT

Brian Ludwig, SVP of Sales at CVENT joins me this week to talk careers and events. We talk about: Staying at CVENT for 19 years  Why you shouldn’t be distracted chasing OTE Maximizing your ROI at events Live events are the second most influential channel behind a company’s website The importance of pre-show events Scoring leads from trade shows  Drawing people into your booth The power of sharing stories internally  There is no substitute for face to face time 

101: SalesLoft's VP of Sales Enablement Shawn Fowler

Shawn Fowler has something that's very unusual in the corporate world a PhD. He's also VP of Sales Enablement at SalesLoft. We talk about culture, sales enablement and engagement, and the transition from academia to the corporate world, and how that translates.   Check out SalesLoft's Hey Salespeople podcast on Apple Podcasts and your favorite podcatcher.

100: Jeff Hoffman, Friend, Mentor, Founder of Hoffman

Jeff Hoffman, my mentor, former boss, friend and the founder of Hoffman, joins me for a the 100th Make It Happen Monday. Among other things, we talk about: Our history including Basho  What makes a good sales trainer, including actively selling Choosing a mentor Evolution of sales Using social media to push deals forward Customer-centric sales process  Social value Find out more about Jeff and his company including his podcast at sellhoffman.com

Encore: Cold Calling Phone and Voicemail Strategies

Enjoy this encore episode of a classic Make It Happen Monday. Originally recorded live on Facebook, John Barrows talks about: The right way to make phone calls Why phone calls aren't as popular anymore The power of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) on phones and how to use sensory words Why you should be leaving voicemails How power hour call blitzes are the most efficient way to make calls. What to say instead of touching base and checking in Questions include: How do you incorpo...

99: Keenan - Gap Selling

Antagonist, author, and consultant Keenan to talk about his Gap Selling methodology   Gap selling is the space between your solution, and the customer.The gap is the state between the current state and the future state. Gap selling helps you challenge your customers with the status quo.   What our job in sales is today How to help customers discover and open up about their pain - that you can solve Asking the right questions  Selling to pain and pleasure Listening and picking...

98 - Tim Bertrand Chief Sales Officer

Tim Bertrand, Chief Sales Officer shares his story having done just about every role in sales. We talk about building a sales organization that consistently wins and Approaching different sales organization styles Sales as a way of increasing customer experience When SDRs shouldn't do a discovery call Dangers of jumping around between company types Different compensation plans Building and creating a culture How anyone can succeed at sales

97: Chris Voss - Negotiations and Tactical Empathy

Chris Voss, author of Never Split the Difference and CEO of the Black Swan Group joins me to talk about everything negotiations and using tactical empathy day to day. Difference between hostage and business negotiation Truly listening  Dangers of win-win mindset When you enter a negotiation Your values vs company values Not being held hostage yourself Creating urgency when it doesn't appear to be there Want to learn more from Chris? Text FBIEMPATHY to 22828.

96: Sales Coaching with Rob Jeppsen CEO/Cofounder at Xvoyant

Rob Jeppsen is just as passionate as I am when it comes to sales coaching. In this episode, we cover: The problem with coaching in most sales organizations How to improve coaching in your sales team 1:1s vs Pipeline review - 1:1 should be all about how they can improve  Weaknesses are weaknesses for a reason - learn to minimize them and focus on what you’re great at Why deals get stuck in the proposal stage Identifying what is holding deals back Measuring responsiveness to co...

95: Account Based Marketing and Sales Marketing Alignment with Latane Conant CMO at 6sense

Latane is a former sales leader turned marketer and now the CMO at 6sense. We talk about marketing sales alignment, and how to do account-based marketing the right way. Calling BS on ABM and what it’s about Being aware of buying patterns Overlap of marketing and sales to drive revenue Evolution of the SDR role Using real time data for competitive analysis Making sales and marketing cohesive and enjoyable

95: Account Based Marketing and Sales Marketing Alignment with Latane Conant CMO at 6sense

94: Scott Crawford - Coaching and Scaling

From selling old and dusty mainframes to the latest PaSS and SaSS, Scott has sold just about everything in tech before getting into consulting.   East coast vs west coast mentality Getting better coaching from your managers GAS - Give a shit quotient  Split test anything and everything that’s ethical Building a culture of self-coaching Starting from nothing to build out coaching and training  How much product knowledge should you give your reps during onboarding?

94: Scott Crawford - Coaching and Scaling

From selling old and dusty mainframes to the latest PaSS and SaSS, Scott has sold just about everything in tech before getting into consulting.   East coast vs west coast mentality Getting better coaching from your managers GAS - Give a shit quotient  Split test anything and everything that’s ethical Building a culture of self-coaching Starting from nothing to build out coaching and training  How much product knowledge should you give your reps during onboarding?

93: Sandler Sales Training CEO Dave Mattson

Dave Mattson, CEO and President of Sandler Sales Training joins me to talk about training, working collaboratively, and how to be successful in sales. Some takeaways from this episode  Working 3x Harder Doesn’t make you 3X More Succesful  How to work together with “the competition" Your prospect may have left the meeting mentally 5 minutes into it What are you deciding on at the end of your meeting Learning how to develop new habits Building your confidence one step at a time ...

93: Josh Guttman - Prospecting to a new VP

Josh Guttman went through my training over 10 years ago as an SDR. Now as a VP, he's getting prospected using the same tactics he learned over a decade ago. We talk about: Bringing authenticity to every contact The importance of aligning values How core values change and adapt over time When NOT to use someone’s name going over their head, and how to get confirmation you can “Are you comfortable if I use your name?” The importance of fighting the status quo The death of being s...

92: David Bloom - Level Jump

David Bloom, CEO of Level Jump and I talk about training with sales teams How sales reps learn differently  Habits of sales reps early on to be successful The best advice we’ve received early in our careers What training and onboarding should look Learning to talk holistically with your prospects First 30/60/90 days of onboarding How to always be practicing your craft and always improve What is Sales Enablement   Learn more at LevelJumpsoftware.com

91: Jake Dunlap CEO of Skaled - LinkedIn and Personal Branding

Recorded Live at Rainmaker 2019 Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled and who you've probably seen on LinkedInm, joins Make It Happen Mondays to talk about what is working on LinkedIn right now, and why everyone needs a personal brand. Topics We Cover: What we took away from Gary Vaynerchuk’s 4 D session in New York What two qualifying questions  Why you don’t need to worry about saturation The timing of social posts Value of quality networking vs quantity networking Employees building co...

90: Buyer Intent Data - Ed Marsh

John and Ed have been doing business since the early 2000s! We get caught up and touch on Buyer intent data - from body language to website behavior First party, second party, and third party intent data What pages are they viewing? Enterprise pricing or startup versions Ways to gather data for free through social Utilizing buyer intent data without being creepy Use of AI in the buying and sales journey Increasing forecast accuracy

89: Jason Bay CoFounder and CRO Blissful Prospecting

Jason Bay, Cofounder and CRO at Blissful Prospecting came on the podcast to talk all things prospecting. Some of the items we covered are:  Prospecting best practices in 2019. What's working right now Building a social presence  How he used prospecting to become a guest on Make It Happen Mondays Find Jason on LinkedIn for regular prospecting reviews and prospecting tactics and strategies.