The Sales Playbook Podcast

Today’s buyers have more choices than ever before and that makes it way too easy for you to blend or worse yet . . . Find yourself in a situation where the buyer has defaulted to price as the key component in their selection process We all drop the “v” word but . . . Many struggle with how to truly present the value we bring to the party. Today . . . we’re gonna go there! Here’s what you’ll learn during today’s podcast . . . 5 ways you can set your company apart A forgotten selling point and the one thing that drives it home A critical component that makes you more believable An awesome way to bring important parts of your offer to life How you can use analogies to help your prospects understand and appreciate your value A call to action to break the rules of your industry and “show up” differently Additional Resources To Support Today’s Podcast . . . 1)   Before you can ever begin to differentiate . . . you need to understand your audience better than anyone else. Click here to get inside your prospect’s head! 2)   3 ways for you to be more compelling. 3)   Want to become more believable? Click here. 4)   Here’s a real thorough write up I did on using evidence to add credibility to your words. 5)   Click here if you’d like to get better at presenting your company and your awesome solutions with IMPACT! Finally, if you’ve been loving, what you’ve been hearing on The Sales Playbook podcast, please stop by iTunes, leave us a 5 star rating and a review . . . You’d make this aspiring sales rock star’s day! Instructions on how to write a review on iTunes: Step 1  Click on this link Step 2 Look to the left and there’s a button that says “view in iTunes” click it. Step 3 Scroll down to where it says “customer reviews” Directly under that it says     “write a review” Step 4 Write an awesome review for your Uncle Pau

I get emails all the time from Sales Managers looking for ideas on how they can improve their relationship with their reps and guess what? I get plenty of emails from sales reps looking for help in that department too! I thought it might be a good idea to do a little group therapy this week and talk about how we can improve this vital working relationship. To that end, I have several things that I’m going to share with you: 1)   2 questions sales managers MUST ask their sales reps if they want  a better relationship. 2)   1 question sales reps need to ask their manager. 3)   An awesome sales management “mindset” that one of my clients shared with me. 4)   What micromanagement really means in a relationship. 5)   A communication agreement that managers and reps need to embrace. 6)   An invitation to stop judging and start helping. 7)   How to have a better joint sales call. 8)   3 important reasons why joint sales calls need to be happening on your team! 9)   The problem with egos. Resources mentioned and that support things discussed during the podcast: 1)   How To Master A Joint Sales Call 2)   Here’s an excellent guest post written by Bill Cook with The Top 10 Priorities For Sales Managers 3)   5 Must Have Human Relations Skills 4)   At the end of the podcast I take a minute to mention some cool updates in our Rock Star University division. Click here to see for yourself. Note: You will want to stop by here regularly as we are now updating the content several times a week. 5)   Our next Castain’s Sales School begins October 23rd . . . right on your computer screen. Click here for the early registration discount. Finally, if you’ve been loving, what you’ve been hearing on The Sales Playbook podcast, please stop by iTunes, leave us a 5 star rating and a review . . . You’d make this aspiring sales rock star’s day! Cling here to hook a brother up

We can be rather hard on ourselves in sales! Some of you might find yourself knee deep in beating yourself up right now, as we approach month end! I have a quick 3 minute audio tip for you with 3 very cool things you can do . . . right now, to turn things around! Please stop what you're doing and take the 3 minutes to invest in yourself. Tell your boss you have to go to the bathroom or something and crank this on speaker. Why? Because it will give all those bastards who like to talk on their cell phones in the bathroom a little competition. I triple dog dare ya!

We all should know by now that there is zero value in calling someone to “check in” and yet many still do it. They don’t do it to be rebellious or because they have a note on their calendar to “Sound lame today” . . . They do it because they just don’t know what to say or do . . . Furthermore (I feel like I’m making a speech) they get caught up in a bit of a “stimulus/response” thing because the little alert in their CRM goes off telling them to call the ABC Company and guess what they do? They make an instantaneous decision, lacking any degree of thought or care and then . . . Default to “I’m calling to check in” It’s my mission to help you change that! Here’s what you’ll learn during today’s podcast . . . How to listen for certain things that make for an awesome conversation How ideas can help you get you recognized in a sea of messages How you can use “Random Acts Of Coolness” to stay on your client’s radar screen. A “Resourceful” way you can keep your client’s attention Why you absolutely MUST connect with your clients on social networks How you can leverage a concept I teach called “Social Clues” to stay in touch with your clients. A lesson from a printer and how they stay in touch (weekly) and stand out in the process! And finally, how you can map your communication to help you avoid that “Checking in” thing. Resources Mentioned In Today’s Podcast . . . 1)   “The Sales Listening Station” Complete, step by step instructions can be found by clicking here. 2)   Want to learn about “Random Acts Of Coolness”? Click here. 3)   I talk about “Social Clues” and how to expand your network in this 90 page social networking e-Book I authored. 4)   Dave Spaulding is a distributor for SendOutCards. Here’s some additional information as well as his email address. 5)   Lisa Bickford from Highlight Printing sends out a really cool resource to her network each week called “The Weekender”. Click here to see a sample and to join Lisa’s mailing list! 6)   At the end of the podcast, I mention our upcoming time management course. Click here for all the details. If you've enjoyed this episode of The Sales Playbook Podcast, please take a trip over to iTunes, leave us a 5 star star rating, write a review and by all means . . . subscribe. Click here to be magically whisked away to the land of  iTunes

Its that magical time of the week again folks when we get to hang out via The Sales Playbook Podcast and today we’re tackling a tough topic. Is Twitter A Waste Of Time For Sales People? I’ll go ahead and spill the beans and tell you that I’m weighing in on this one with both a Yes and all caps NO and if I might upgrade that . . . A Ridiculously large all Caps NO! I'll provide you with several, real world examples of how sales people are kicking ass and taking names in the b2b space oh and I'm not talking about what "social media experts" are doing . . . I'm talking about sales reps in industries like printing, software sales, merchant services, consulting, accounting to name just a few. Resources mentioned during this podcast . . . How you can capitalize on people complaining on Twitter click here Twitter For The Aspiring Rock Star (this was a webinar that I did a few months back. I have it recorded on our Rock Star University page) 50 Totally Random Social Networking Tips This is a free e-Book You’re welcome! To subscribe to The Sales Playbook Podcast on iTunes please click here and if you found value in this podcast would you please give us a 5 star rating and leave a comment. Speaking of comment, thank you to Stephen Lahey who left this comment on iTunes . . . The Sales Playbook Podcast is a winner by stephenlahey I've been selling for decades, and I don't waste my time with anything that isn't fresh and practical. I've never met Paul Castain, but his Sales Playbook Podcast is a winner. Maybe it's time for me to give him a call. Monday is the last day you can enroll in Castain’s Sales School. Please click here for all the details!

In this week's podcast we tackle something that quite frankly, bothers the heck out of lots of sales people. I'm talking about . . . The Call That Isn't Returned and I'm also talking about its plural form . . . The Calls That Aren't Returned but . . . It's important that we all approach this from the same perspective so please allow me to provide a context for this. I'm not talking about the call(s) that aren't returned after you've met with someone . . . I'm talking about the calls that aren't returned from that person you are trying to get a damn appointment with. Items Mentioned In This Podcast Include 1)  Linkedin discussion (on this very topic) in my Sales Playbook group. Here's a link to that discussion. 2) I refer to something that I call "Call Back Entitlement Syndrome". Here's the post I mentioned 3) "Meticulous Pre Call Planning" and "Communication Mapping" are just 2 of the more than 100+ tips and strategies I teach in my Sales Camp Program. For details click here. 4) Link to "Sales Mix" Podcast can be found by clicking here. FYI I sound like I'm on helium in this episode and I have no logical explanation to offer. :) 5) Link to "Your Cold Call Is Lonely" post is right here my link clicking brother from another mother! 6) I mention a way cool e-Book on creative ways you can prospect. Click here to snatch  your free copy! Who loves you guys more than me? 7) Sign up for our podcast on iTunes by clicking here. I could use a really huge favor . . . If you find value in my podcast, would you please go to iTunes and give it a great rating and leave a comment in the Customer Review section as well? It would sure help us bring things to the next level. Click here if you want to hook a brother up! Once you click on the link, select the option to view in iTunes so you can rate the podcast . . . Thanks in Advance

Whether you know that you will be making a job change or starting your own business or you think you’re in a “Till death do us part” relationship, you need to listen to today’s podcast because . . . We’re going to talk about . . . How, When and Why you need to do this. I see so many people who wait until its like the 11th hour to build their online presence and quite frankly, it comes across really bad as if “I’ll show up now that I need something from everyone” Not bueno and not good for your overall brand! Here’s what we’ll cover . . . Why you absolutely MUST do this Some specific things that you can do, right now, that will enable you to stand out How you can use technology to buy you some time How you can create a status update that will demonstrate your expertise And most of all . . . How you can raise your army long before you go into battle. Oh, and as many of you know, I don’t do a second take, that’s why you hear me say “Sunday, August 25th” when we both know it’s the 26th. I do stuff like this from time to time to remind you that I’m human and willing to come at cha without a bunch of production and polish

We’ve all been there . . . A good prospect meeting with gusts of great and then . . . A whole lot of nothing! No response to calls, emails and you’re in limbo! What’s an aspiring sales rock star to do? How about changing up some things on the front end to lower the probability of the silent prospect? Today, I have 5 things you can immediately apply to your next meeting to help keep the momentum going! Things like a very specific question you need to ask as you set your appointment with the prospect A question you need to ask and then work backwards A very specific thing I want you to say to keep them from disappearing A very specific thing I want you to do to gain commitment without any of that 1970's Monkey Style Kung Fu closing crap. Sound like a reasonable plan for our time together this week. Hope so because I'm sure as heck not going to rerecord this  :

I though it was time for me to tell my story (complete with specifics) of how I made my come back after suffering a horrific failure.

This one question might throw you off guard. There's nothing sophisticated or glamorous about it and yet . . . It can impact your business big time. In order to get the full benefit of this question, it needs to be asked of several people in your business and guess what? It all starts with you! I hope I intrigued you enough so you'll at least invest the 18 minutes in the podcast!

When was the last time you took the time to seriously look at each customer touch point in your organization and just for the heck of it . . . When was the last time you looked at things as if you were your customer at every phase of the sales cycle? Sadly, if you're like most people . . . it was long ago and far away in the land of "I can't remember when". Today . . . we're gonna go there girlfriend and it all begins with a little story of how a group of people wowed me during my son's college orientation. I know, "How the heck are you going to tie that one into sales Castain?" . . . don't worry . . . I got this one under control!

There's a sales study that has been butchered so many different ways that its hard to know what's real and what isn't. There's one interpretation of the study that would lead you to believe that it takes 7 "touches" to make a sale. There's another interpretation of the study that would lead you to believe that it takes 7 touches just to get the appointment. I offer a third, more up to date translation of this notion of "7" complete with several suggestions to help you expedite the process! Things have changed folks and its time we adapt to a radically different sales landscape!

By far one of the coolest things about my job is that I get to conduct best practices studies for organizations. The purpose of these studies is to flag the qualities of their sales rock stars and then create a series of repeatable steps to roll out for the rest of the sales force. There is one quality that I see time and time again that I believe is critical to their success and today I’m going share it but . . . Don’t you dare dismiss it because of its simplicity in fact . . . Pay attention to how you react to it when I share it with you. Your reaction might very well underscore the entire point of today’s podcast

In this week’s podcast, we talk about 7 ways you can train for little to no money but first we dive head first into 3 areas of “Stinkin Thinkin” when it comes to training. I don’t need to train . . . I know my stuff. Actually you do need to train, we all do. No time . . . With 3 kids and a business that takes me all over the US I certainly understand that one but . . . perhaps we need to find the time? I think you’re worth it! No Money. Don’t even get me started on how much I know about this one. Been there, done that and its an awful feeling. I just think it’s a shame that many of us have invested in strange companies through our 401k’s and the stock market and yet we aren’t willing to invest in ourselves. Even so, this podcast will show you a few really easy and really inexpensive ways you can in fact . . . Train on a shoestring

Twitter is one of those social networking platforms that you love, you “don’t get” or you just sort of go through the motions! No matter where you are on that whacky continuum, there are multiple benefits to be had on Twitter . . . so guess what? Today We’re Going There! In this week’s podcast we’ll explore 5 of these and I promise you that even if you’re fully onboard with Twitter, these are things you’ll want to take note of! Note: At the end of the podcast, I mention our upcoming Twitter webinar Twitter For The Aspiring Rock Star. For more details, click here! I have some awesome content lined up for you if you scroll down and listen via the handy dandy podcast player. If you’re short on time then how about clicking on the link underneath the podcast player so you can download it. This way I can be your educational co pilot this week and you can use your drive time for some free learning