In this episode, the Modern Marketing Podcast welcomes the 'Modern Sales Guy,' Sean Piket. Sean is founder and CEO of two successful businesses, Sales Integrity and MyCoachSite, and has over 24 years of experience in "selling the invisible" in the B2B world. He's participated in the scaling of several companies as a doer and leader and has watched businesses scale from single-digit millions to multimillions.

How do you achieve growth like that? According to Sean, certainly not by 'winging it.' Join Adam and Sean as they explain why effectively scaling your business comes down to strategy and preparation plus tips you can apply to boost sales authentically and ethically in your business.

Episode Discussions:

Why you should think twice about hiring a large company sales rep
Common hiring mistakes and avoiding high turnover rates
Create structure for new hires with the perfect 90-day onboarding plan
The 3 meaningful components of a sales operation
The 4 cornerstones of lead generation success when generating your own leads
How to use LinkedIn's Sales Navigator to get referrals
Having the servant leadership attitude
The #1 sales killer and the simple solution
Common factors of successfully scaled businesses
Cultivating a strategic network
Why you should get over your fear of asking for referrals
How to create free training videos to educate new hires
To cold call or not to cold call?
The importance of context in sales
Human to human connection and the power of the phone
Why you should market to customer challenges over goals
A prescription for selling success
Social selling and how to approach social media strategically
Why preparation will make your sales "pop"
How to tailor your messaging that targets only your ideal audience

4:32

Sean's story

Started career in IT consulting
Sold custom software
Has had to sell the invisible in the B2B world
Moved to Dallas, TX in 99'
Launched Sales Integrity in 2004 and built his business model around preparation and strategy

6:56

Sean created MyCoachSite (software platform for coaches) after seeing a gap in the market.

7:49

Common factors of successfully scaled businesses:

3 meaningful components of a sales operation:

Sales talent
Sales performance
Sales management

A profile of the right sales pro for your company to make good hiring decisions

A sound sales recruiting and hiring process in place and a program that allows them to ramp up sales talent at a faster rate than on their own.

10:29

"If you don't provide the structure [for new hires], they're going to go create it themselves."

10:56

How to create free training videos to educate new hires:

Use a free tool like Zoom to create video tutorials that get new hires up to speed on your company branding, messaging, products, services, how you go to market, etc.

Use as repeatable, reusable orientation material that trains them at the right pace.

"Take them to existing customer meetings as well as prospect meetings. That way they begin with the end in mind."

13:11

Activity to pipeline to results:

Have a 90-day onboarding plan

Set the expectations and have a good ramp up plan between 30, 60, 90 days

Create a checklist to make sure they're tracking towards producing results

15:14

The 4 cornerstones of lead generation success for people responsible for generating their own leads:

Referrals

18:23

"91% of customers would gladly give referrals to sales professionals yet 11% of sales professionals actually ask for referrals."

Common reasons people don't ask for referrals: