Struggles, the Funnel and Identifying Your Ideal Customer with Liz Heiman - 257

In this episode, Mike talks to Liz Heiman, CEO and Chief Sales Strategist for Regarding Sales.They talk struggles, process, funnel and ways to identify your ideal customer. Key Takeaways: It’s fun to help people realize Sales isn’t a big, bad, scary thing. Many Founders struggle because they don’t realize they can ask certain questions of prospects. Work on becoming more comfortable talking about what you do. Ideal Customer Profile Customer that is most likely to buy from you Customer who is most likely to be happy with the outcome Customer who will continue to buy from you Customer with a short sales cycle Customer where the timing is right Customer who you really designed your product for Saying no to a prospect feels like we are giving up on what we could have. However, we have to say no so that we use the resources we have as efficiently as possible. If you focus on the wrong customers, your company will always go in the wrong direction. Pipeline - opportunities that are coming in and moving through the process to close. Can also be referred to as a funnel. Qualify Out - purposely look for opportunities to move people out of the funnel. Teamwork is the best thing that should happen in a team meeting. Focus on the things that matter in team meetings: Where do we stand? What’s new? Updates. What are our partners doing? Team exercise There is always a frantic focus on what’s closing right now, which is the worst focus! Pipeline reviews should be 1:1, not in a group setting! Pipeline/funnel review: What’s going on? What do you need from us? When is the deal going to close?  What have you done to put stuff in the top of your funnel? How is your prospecting going? What is going on with your qualification? During a pipeline/funnel review, it is important to have a discussion and not beat your Sales Rep up. It is important to have some sort of value exchange. We leave so much money on the table by not growing our existing accounts. Show Links:  www.regardingsales.com Liz on LinkedIn Work With Catalyst Sale: Listen to our free resource (this podcast) and then put the action items into practice. Share your work with us via Twitter or [email protected] Invest in a Catalyst Sale course - self directed. Find our courses here  Hire us as a consultant/advisor within your team or organization  Thank You  Please send listener questions and feedback to [email protected] or contact us directly on twitter, facebook or LinkedIn. This podcast is brought to you by Catalyst Sale - you can learn more about Catalyst Sale, and the products and services we provide via the following links. Growth Acceleration - Plateau Breakthrough Product Market Fit