Open Source Selling -- A Thoughtful Exchange of Ideas in the Art and Science of B2B Selling

Thomas Edison once said, "Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think." Is learning how to think really that rare and valuable? Cal Newport seems to agree as he hypothesized in his book, Deep Work, "The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy....

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss the importance of carving time out in your day to think. This sounds simple, but in today's ever connected, "too much to do and never enough time" world, thinking seems to be a dying art even though the importance of it has never been more important. Tom Watson, founder of IBM, said ,"All the problems of the world could be settled easily, if people were only willing to think." As...

On this week's episode of Open Source Selling, I address a few more common objections and offer insight on how to approach, understand, and handle them. I also address what is at the core of effectively overcoming objections: better understanding your customer's perspective and then merging their perspective with your product, service, or solution to radically improve their current situation. How do we do this? We ask effective que...

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss another common objection: 'we have no budget' and share my experience in how I have approached handling it.

We often receive this objection when we are on a prospecting call or in the early stages of discovery. However, it is common to get it later on in the sales cycle too. Regardless of when we get this, or any objection, we should be grateful for the engagement and use the obj...

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, I start this first in a series about effectively handling common objections. I start by sharing some general thoughts on handling objections--what we should know, how we can try and handle them before they come, how we should be thinking and approaching them, and how to try and best prepare for them. I also share an analogy to provide some perspective on how to think about more challenging...

On this week's episode of Open Source Selling, I discuss the five types of sales reps as outlined in the book, The Challenger Sale. To help explain the importance of why you should know which type of rep you are and the value you can bring an organization, I draw from the wisdom of John Bunn, legendary Stanford basketball coach who said, "A great coach doesn't try and change a great player. Instead, [he] discovers what is unique, w...

This episode of Open Source Selling is my entire conversation with Jason from start to finish without interruption and little commentary. The bulk of our discussion centers on how to work with and sell to the CIO, although, we discuss other topics like goal setting, being consistent, how to maximize your performance, and what it takes to become a top performing rep. One thing is clear, for almost 30 years Jason's success as a top p...

On today's episode of Open Source Selling, Jason and I continue our conversation and discuss 'how to effectively work with and sell to the CIO'. Jason shares what he does to prepare to make initial contact and how he secures a first meeting. This includes his research on the CIO's initiative's, connecting with the CIO's extended team to gather specific information, build relationships and support, as well as over-coming objectives ...

On this week’s episode of Open Source Selling, I sit down with Jason Wagner. Jason helped me get into the business 25 years ago and has himself been in B2B Sales for close to 30 years. He has worked for both large and small companies including Microsoft and Oracle.

Our conversation this week revolves around how to work with and sell to the CIO, the importance of building strong relationships with your customers throughout the sales...

Mike Harding is diligent, thoughtful, and has earned the status of trusted advisor in the eyes of his clients. He has learned from some of the best in the business. Join me in this complete conversation as we discuss lessons he learned from his mentors, what it means to be a trusted advisor and how to lead your team to similar status, identifying the signal and the noise in account management, asking tough questions, and how all of...

On today’s episode of Open Source Selling, Mike and I discuss the value of elevating your team to the status of trusted advisor, because in enterprise selling, real success depends on the sum total of your team. There are too many moving parts for any one person. In enterprise sales, what may start with early alignment to an individual quickly moves through a department and then across an entire organization. As Mike puts it, “it’s...

This week, on Open Source Selling, I sit down with Mike Harding, Enterprise Account Executive at Google Cloud. Our conversation is centered around account management, customer retention and growth. Mike shares the early influence of mentors in shaping his thinking and lessons learned from many of them. He discusses what it means to become a trusted advisor for his clients and elevating his team to equal status. We also touch on his...

This episode of Open Source Selling is my conversation with Kathleen Hartmann is its entirety, with minimal commentary and without interruption. Kathleen is a true sales professional and when it comes to business development she is in a league of her own. What makes her so good? She is genuine, sincere, and authentic. She is disciplined, persistent, and patient! She prepares so she is confident.

In our conversation she shares how e...