Practical Sales Podcast - By Atlantic Growth Solutions

Kyle is joined by Kent Murphy, COO at Atlantic Growth Solutions. Kent leads the BDM and SDR teams who engage their client's ideal customers and qualify sales leads with decision-makers. Kent's team has been achieving a 70% MQL to SQL, and SQL to Opportunity conversion rate on leads qualified for their clients. 

Kent breaks down one important piece of the conversion puzzle: Researching prospects. Likely the first action a revenue team member would complete before reaching out to a prospect. He talks about where to research, what to look for, and the experience level required for revenue members to be able to achieve effective research. 

Process and efficiency are critical to an effective sales process and Kent has some wisdom to share on how to improve the research phase for revenue leaders and their teams. 

How does a Revenue Leader know their teams are performing to the best of their ability?

Meghann Misiak (LinkedIn) is the founder of Path to Presidents Club. She helps companies build onboarding best practices and coaches sales talent on their path to being high achieving.

On this episode, Meghann and Kyle discuss more tactical and practical onboarding and ramping strategies to get sales professionals up to speed quicker, without cutting corners. 

Meghann and Kyle cover some key details surrounding the following topics:

• Why is onboarding important? 
• What metric should you track to indicate if your current onboarding is successful? 
• Hiring for Talent or Personality - who should revenue leaders invest in? 
• What onboarding typically looks like within companies.
• The Bootcamp model - team approach to building the foundation for success.

Check out part 1 of our interview with Meghann if you haven't already

How does a Revenue Leader know that their teams are performing to the best of their ability?

Meghann Misiak (LinkedIn) is the founder of Path to Presidents Club. She helps companies build onboarding best practices and coaches sales talent to become high achieving. 

Meghann and Kyle cover some key details surrounding the following topics:

• Why is onboarding important?
• What metric should you track to indicate if your current onboarding is successful?
• Hiring for Talent or Personality - who should revenue leaders invest in?
• What onboarding typically looks like within companies
• The Bootcamp model - team approach to building the foundation for success

Check out part 1 of our interview with Meghann. Part 2 drops soon!

Part 2 of our interview with Andrew Holmes of ICS Creative Agency. 

Kyle and Andrew discuss the process for interacting with leads once they have come in to your organization. Whether they have raised their hand through a form, a download or a contact us inquiry, someone in the organizations has to manage them.

They talk Service Level Agreements to manage the relationship and expectations between Sales and Marketing, as well as how leads should be qualified and when teams should hand them over to the next person in the process. 

*This Part 1 of 2 of Kyle's conversation with Andrew*

There are a lot of differences between Marketing and Sales operations. But at the heart of any successful campaign is the Customer. 

Andrew Holmes from ICS Creative joins Kyle to discuss two key exercises that need to be conducted to ensure success in your revenue growth.

First - you need to build your Ideal Customer Profile. Collaboration between Sales and Marketing will help build an accurate picture of what attributes make up an "Ideal Customer".

Second - the customers buying journey needs to be mapped out. Each stage of the process that a customer will navigate through has to be thought out and logical. The right messaging, combined with the proper Call to Action, all while feeling personalized and tailored to the potential customer as much as possible.

Doing these two exercises will build a clearer picture of who the organization should be focusing their attention on, and what milestones they will be completing along their journey. 

Sales Organizations rarely look the same during start-up as they do when the business is mature. 

Chris Forman (CEO, Appcast) knows how to structure a Sales Organization for the stage the business is at. 

In this episode, Kyle and Chris discuss Go-to-Market Strategies, Content Marketing and Being Honest to your team members.

Major Topics:

- Honesty from the top : Telling a new team member "I can only pay you for three months"

- What makes you successful at one stage, will kill you at the next

- Too much money at the start makes you dumb : Financial Constraint drives innovation

- CAC:LTV Ratio to understand health of Sales Organization : Be honest an include the correct costs

- Churn is a major indicator of a Healthy Sales Organization : Team Members stay if they are happy and winning.

And much more.

We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we di making it! 

 ---  Thank you !

Old News : 2020 Forced nearly every company to shift to virtual selling

Bob Perkins, founder of the American Association for Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP)joins Kyle to discuss a wide range of topics focused on a single theme: Inside Sales

As businesses are preparing for 2021, have already established their "next-normal" and work to improve and optimize their strategies, Bob joins us to discuss some of the most relevant topics for Inside Sales Professionals and Leaders.

- Stages of Grief for the way things used to be

- Tech Stack Essentials for B2B Sales

- Good and Bad of Virtual Sales Environments

- Going back to business basics

- And more!

Bob drops some of the most practical sales advice for Professionals and Sales Leaders that has been heard on the Podcast to date. It is something we should all take a moment to do, and this is the perfect time of year to do it. 

Check out Bob Practical Sales Takeaway in the second half of the Episode. 

What should your Sales Organizations approach to KPI's for Sales Team Members be?

Tera Gillen is back for a second time on the Podcast to talk about Healthy Organizations and their approach to KPI's.

Kyle and Tera run through 3-4 Rapid Fire Questions to build a clear starting point for an organization looking to build their KPI strategy to drive business and sales growth, sustainably.

The Best Thing you can do, as a Business or Sales Leader, is benchmark your Sales Organization's Health with the Sales Organization Health Assessment - Found HERE

Organizations need to play their part in the ongoing skill development and knowledge building for members of their sales teams. 

Kevin Duffer is a true Sales Leader and specialist in the world of Employee Training. He joins Kyle for a second time to discuss key topics that Organizations must consider to be truly healthy when it comes to ongoing employee training.

A Few Highlights:

• Not a shotgun approach, must be part of a larger strategy
• Needs to customized and relevant to the level of experience and role that the Team Members are in daily
• Personal Development doesn't fall solely on the shoulders of the Employer - Sales Professionals must work to develop their own skills
• Learn from the best people around you, but adapt it to you own style

Benchmark the health of your sales organization with this free assessment tool - Link

The Healthiest Sales Organizations hire to fuel the fire and accelerate growth, not band-aid an issue and cover it up. 

Doug King Joins Kyle for a second time on the Practical Sales Podcast. Bringing his experience as a Senior Recruiter for Broad Reach Staffing  and previously as VP of Sales at Skillsoft, helping to build a team of over 320 Sales Professionals.

Doug King knows what a Healthy Hiring Process looks like for Sales Talent. 

He drop 7+ key topics that Sales and Business Leaders need to consider when evaluating their internal Hiring Process. 

• Team Effort with HR
• Anticipate the Questions Interviewees will likely ask
• Leverage Personality Trait Assessments to Benchmark your Top Performers
• and many more...

Arguably the most important roles within your organization, it may be time that you step back and take a look at your hiring process. Small improvements in a few key areas can turn an UNhealthy sales Organization into a HEALTHY one.