How to Unleash the Power of What You Don’t Know About Your Sales Team to Drive Growth – In Just 7 Minutes with Barbara Spector

Resources/Links:

• To get more FREE tips on how you can multiply your sales faster, click here: http://the guide.vip/

Summary

Have you been experiencing stalled sales, hindered business growth, and undeniable stress that you just don’t know what to do?

Looking at a problem is just the tip of the iceberg. What you need to do is more than that– dive into the root cause and look for a promising solution for it.

Barbara Spector is the CEO of SmartMoves and has spent more than 26 years helping CEOs and business owners with sales transformation and people development in a wide array of industries.

Barbara dives deeper into the iceberg of sales and marketing and shares her amazing insights that can guarantee you multiple closed deals quicker and less stress-free!

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:42 – Barbara’s ideal client: We work with, basically, in three arenas, but it’s all within the small-to-medium-sized business space. Although we do work with enterprise-sized companies as well, mostly within the small-medium size– $20 million to 500 million.
• 02:05 – The problem she helps solve: I’ll just talk about CEOs. CEOs are so frustrated right now because their forecasts are inaccurate. And when we talk to them, there are two basic problems.
• 02:47 – The symptoms of the problem: Well, here’s the interesting thing, what companies look at are the symptoms and not the root cause– there’s a difference. So the symptoms might look like, “Oh, we’ve got a bloated pipeline where our win rates are too low.
• 04:06 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Barbara: Actually, they tell me beforehand, but that’s okay. Well, first of all, as I said, they’re looking at symptoms, not root causes, which is what we help them to identify.
• 06:17 – Barbara’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Well, first of all, if I were having the kinds of problems that we see with CEOs or sales leaders, I would not put people into sales training to fix them. I’d find out what it is.
• 07:04 – Barbara’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): To get more FREE tips on how you can multiply your sales faster, click here: http://the guide.vip/
• 08:02 – Q: Do you believe in the idea that if you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it? A: That’s true! That’s a trick question, but that’s really where it comes down to.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“What companies look at are the symptoms and not the root cause-- there's a difference.” -Barbara Spector Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Barbara Spector. Barbara, good day! A warm welcome from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?

Barbara Spector 00:23
I’m hanging out in Northern California where it’s pretty warm right now. It’s perfect weather!

Tom Poland 00:28
You had the delusion of winter, right?

Barbara Spector 00:31
Oh, it was just horrendous, but it got us out of the drought. We’ve been it for years.

Tom Poland 00:39
Yeah, I’d rather have a bit of wet weather than droughts, that’s for sure. Living here in Australia, we know all about that. In fact, Barb is the CEO of SmartMoves and has spent more than 26 years helping CEOs, and business leaders, business owners, with sales transformation. Arguably, the point is the end of the business. You’ve got sales coming in regularly, everyone’s pretty happy, people are getting paid, and we’re growing. So it’s not happening. It doesn’t matter what else you do. It’s like straightening deck chairs on the Titanic. So it’s critically important to every organization and every individual connected with that organization, let alone the clients we’re going to help. Experience across a broad range of industries, so chances are, it doesn’t really matter what you’re doing right now. If you’ve got a business, or you’re a senior executive responsible for growth, you’re gonna get something great out of this. Our title today is, “How to Unleash the Power of What You Don’t Know About Your Sales Team to Drive Growth”. There are some unknowns. Our time starts now. Question number one is who’s your ideal client?

Barbara Spector 01:42
We work with, basically, in three arenas, but it’s all within the small-to-medium-sized business space. Although we do work with enterprise-sized companies as well, mostly within the small-medium size– $20 million to 500 million. And specifically CEOs, sales leaders, and HR VPS.

Tom Poland 02:01
Oh, as well. Okay, interesting! So how would you describe the problem that you solve?

Barbara Spector 02:05
I’ll just talk about CEOs. CEOs are so frustrated right now because their forecasts are inaccurate. And when we talk to them, there are two basic problems. There’s a delay in closing, especially because people are nervous about the economy right now. And there’s not enough new business coming in to make up for that.

Tom Poland 02:24
Right.

Barbara Spector 02:25
Yeah.

Tom Poland 02:26
Let’s carry it on then to question three, because we’re gonna talk about the symptoms. Let’s unpack this. You talked about delayed closes. You talked about a lack of new sales coming through to compensate for those delays. What else would someone, if someone’s listening to this, and they’re going, “Yeah, I need to find out more about what Barbara does.” How would they tell that? What are the symptoms of what’s going on?

Barbara Spector 02:47
Well, here’s the interesting thing, what companies look at are the symptoms and not the root cause– there’s a difference. So the symptoms might look like, “Oh, we’ve you know, got a bloated pipeline where our win rates are too low. And they think that maybe they need to do training and how to help their salespeople be better at closing.” That’s a symptom.

Tom Poland 03:10
That’s a symptom.

Barbara Spector 03:11
And the cause-

Tom Poland 03:13
Yeah, the cause? Sorry, go on.

Barbara Spector 03:14
The cause is probably not that. What it probably is that salespeople don’t know how to reach decision-makers. They don’t know how to create urgency. And so if they are talking to the right person, they don’t know how to create agent urgency because they don’t ask the right questions.

Tom Poland 03:28
So they could talk to the person who’s not actually able to make the decision, doesn’t matter how good your closing skills are gonna be.

Barbara Spector 03:28
Exactly!

Tom Poland 03:31
And, let’s say, they are talking to the right person. There’s no reason for that person to make a decision now as opposed to delaying it. And we know when people would delay decisions, they just wander off and it drops off the radar scope of their mind. You’re talking about- your ideal clients are growth orientated. They’re sales assertive if you like. They’re concerned. They’re going to try stuff. What would you say would be some of the common mistakes that your ideal clients have made? They tell you about this after they become a client of yours?

Barbara Spector 04:06
Actually, they tell me beforehand, but that’s okay. Well, first of all, as I said, they’re looking at symptoms, not root causes, which is what we help them to identify. They don’t understand that salespeople, sales managers, and even sales leaders have hidden mindsets that they can’t easily perceive that are keeping things stuck. So let me give you a good example. So for example, on all three levels, you’ve heard this expression, “People buy from people they love, like, and trust.” Well, it’s all well and good to be liked, but it’s another thing to need to be liked. This means you have a need for approval, which means you don’t ask your customers or your prospects deep enough questions for fear you’re going to offend them. That’s just one.

Tom Poland 04:51
That’s a good one. That’s a big one. So it’s kind of a side question here. It sounds like quite a lot of the work that you do, initially with a new client, is diagnostic. Not saying, you know, rushing in with a sales program, but trying to figure out exactly where the issue is. Would that be right?

Barbara Spector 05:08
That’s absolutely positive! That’s absolutely on the money. And if I were to use an analogy, I mean, you wouldn’t go to a doctor if you had chest pain, and have him operate on you, you know, thinking it’s heart surgery, just because he asked you two or three questions, only to discover you just have indigestion.

Tom Poland 05:24
Yeah, or worse still, “Oh, you got chest pain. Quick! Under the knife.” So that old saying, which is still very apt, as you know, “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” I’m very interested in that. And I’m interested in folks- I’d love for folks to really listen up to that and consider that. Very often, we just go on and enroll for another sales course or we enroll with us. But we really haven’t done a root cause analysis. And that’s, I think, one of the things that sets you apart Barbara, is the due diligence you do and the patience you exercise in really figuring out what the cause of the problem is before you apply the band-aid solutions. Let’s flip this to a top tip! So this is question five, what’s one valuable free action that someone listening to this could take? It is not going to solve the whole problem, but it might be a step in the right direction.

Barbara Spector 06:12
That’s a big question.

Tom Poland 06:13
Yeah, it’s unfair. I know.

Barbara Spector 06:17
Give me a second. Well, first of all, if I were having the kinds of problems that we see with CEOs or sales leaders, I would not put people into sales training to fix them. I’d find out what it is. So one of the things they could do is literally do a diagnostic. It’s like a sales MRI of what the whole organization actually looks like– the good, the bad, and the ugly– and be able to face that and then make decisions based on that. And then do sales training after that. Because, otherwise, it’s a band-aid.

Tom Poland 06:47
Yeah, I think if nothing else, someone sits down and says, “Let’s do an adequate diagnostic.” I know you can help with that. But if that’s the decision, it’s a step in the right direction, rather than just buying more sales training. Thank you for that! Question six is a valuable free resource. Where can people go to find out more about this?

Barbara Spector 07:04
Okay. Well, part of what we like to look at, and it’s imperative that we look at is what the mindsets of those three entities in a sales organization have in common– meaning sales managers, salespeople, and sales leaders– and they all have the same hidden mindsets that get in their way, positively or negatively, by the way. So one of the things that we have as a free gift for your audience is something called- it’s a special report called, Mastering Your Sales Mindset, Multiply Your Sales, and they can receive that by literally going to http://the guide.vip/.

Tom Poland 07:42
It’s theguide.vip. Folks, what you’re going to discover there are nine different mindsets so you can identify which one you fit into. And then, very importantly, having done the diagnosis, which we’ve talked about, have a look at four tips to overcome whatever hurdles that are in your way. 20 seconds left, Barb, but what’s one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Barbara Spector 08:02
Do you believe in the idea that if you can’t measure it, you can’t fix it?

Tom Poland 08:07
And do you?

Barbara Spector 08:08
That’s true! That’s a trick question, but that’s really where it comes down to. If you can’t measure something, you can’t fix it.

Tom Poland 08:15
Perfect! Barbara Spector, thank you so much for your time.

Barbara Spector 08:18
My pleasure. Thank you!

Tom Poland 08:20
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.