Future-Proof Selling

Douglas Cole is an Enterprise Sales Leader at LinkedIn, an advisor with start-up accelerators in Canada and the U.S., and a part-time university lecturer at The Rotman School of Management and The Schulich Executive Education Centre in Toronto. If that isn't enough, he has also authored The Sales MBA: How to Influence Corporate Buyers. Doug joined the LinkedIn team because he believes in their vision and values, and he's committed to refining his craft as a leader. Doug's team helps B2B sales organisations thrive in our digital era. He is actively involved with internal education: as a faculty member of LinkedIn's Data-Driven University (DDU), creating professional development programs with institutional partners, and standing up a Mini-MBA for the global sales team. He's also on the leadership team that sets direction for LinkedIn Canada. "My career spans consulting, education, and sales. Three interests are at the heart of this journey. I like big picture thinking and analysis. That's the consultant in me. I like distilling first principles to help others improve. That's the educator in me. I like driving growth and rallying around a common purpose. That's the sales leader in me. In essence, I enjoy teasing out hidden sources of meaning in our personal and professional lives." - Douglas Cole Key Points of our Discussion Douglas's new book The Sales MBA: How to Influence Corporate Buyers The general lack of Business Acumen in Salespeople The saturated knowledge economy Understanding the external dynamics Getting to know the organisational dynamics Nailing the interpersonal dynamics Becoming a strategist for the industry Becoming a change agent for the company Becoming a decision architect for the customer Choosing language and messaging carefully Behavioural economics in sales To connect with Chris, you can find him here on LinkedIn Find More on his book: The Sales MBA here

Dr. Christopher Croner received his BA in Psychology from DePaul University, and his Masters and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Dr. Croner is co-author of the book, Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again, detailing his research and practice in identifying the non-teachable personality traits common to top producers. Dr. Croner developed the proprietary DriveTest® online sales test and The Drive Interview, both used for hiring "Hunter" salespeople. Using this method, he has helped more than 1,400 companies worldwide to hire and develop top-performing salespeople. Dr. Croner has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, teaching personnel selection in the Industrial Psychology Master of Arts program. His is is an active member of the Consulting Section of the Illinois Psychological Association and former Co-Program Chair of Chicago Industrial/Organizational Psychologists (CIOP). "In 2002, I discovered there was a lack of assessment tools specifically targeting Drive in sales candidates, so I set out to develop my own sales assessment test. After years of research, development, and validity testing, I developed The DriveTest®: The only sales assessment that is scientifically designed to identify candidates that possess the three non-teachable traits common to top producers. Want to start hiring top sales talent? Let me offer you a free DriveTest® right now. Visit: https://salesdrive.info/free-trial-request to access a free test." - Dr Christopher Croner Key Points of our Discussion Chris's clinical psychology background and entry into sales The three key un-teachable personality traits that create "Drive" The cost and dangers of hiring on "gut feel" Best practice hiring processes to secure high performing hunters Tips to attracting high drive applicants in your ads Communicating culture and opportunity The well-constructed phone screening process The importance of a structured behavioural interview Designing the right interview questions The power of an assessment PRIOR to interview To connect with Chris, you can find him here on LinkedIn Find More on Sales Drive here

Ian Koniak is an accomplished sales coach, trainer and keynote speaker who helps B2B Account Executives perform to their full potential and crush their quotas by mastering the mindset, habits, and skills needed to perform at the highest level. Ian has been a top performing Account Executive for 19 years, with over $100M in career sales at Fortune 500 companies. He's led and developed teams, and was recently the #1 Account Executive in the Enterprise Select Division at Salesforce. Ian is now on a mission to share his secrets to success with the sales community. Most recently Ian worked as a Strategic Account Director for the Enterprise West Sales team at Salesforce, where he partnered with their largest customers to help them drive growth, innovation, and success on the Salesforce Platform. At Ricoh, he led a team of 10 Sales Managers and 70 reps responsible for 60M Annual Revenue across hardware, software, and services. "After a near death experience, I started a coaching business to serve others and help them achieve incredible success. My mission is to share my learnings over 19 years in tech sales to help AE's perform their best." - Ian Koniak Key Points of our Discussion Ian's impressive sales success story Discipline vs being "motivated" Mindset and personal development Getting in the habit of doing the hard things Steven Covey's time management quadrant Selling in a recession Innovatively creating opportunities in sales To connect with Ian, you can find him here on LinkedIn Or visit Ian's Website https://iankoniak.com/ to learn more

Dan Kijewski is Senior Director of Enterprise and Staffing Sales at Talent.com - a leader in the recruitment advertising and technology space. He is responsible for sales strategy, strategic planning, recruitment, marketing, product, and all activities required to grow the US Enterprise and Staffing team into a $25m+ business over the next 12months. Dan has 20+ years of sales experience, coupled with his recruitment expertise and deep knowledge of the current market. Dan shares his valuable insight on hiring sales talent in a candidate's market, and how both employers and candidates should approach recruitment processes in order to have the best outcomes for all involved. "Small and Medium Sized Businesses especially (SMBs) need a plan to have a consistent pipeline of candidates at their disposal. In the current candidate market, they need to be prepared to lose people as well as learn how to bring on new candidates faster and expect these hiring challenges to continue for the foreseeable future." - Dan Kijewski Key Points of our Discussion Handling recruitment in a candidate's market The impact on HR leaders Culture and mental health focus The shift in how leaders need to treat their team Sales hiring and interview processes Key indicators (and red flags) to look for in an interview Customer success strategies To connect with Dan, you can find him here on LinkedIn Find More on Talent.com here

Brendan McAdams is Co-founder of Expertscape, a global directory of medical experts, And also Founder of Kiinetics. Kiinetics is a specialty B2B sales coaching and consulting practice with an emphasis on sales strategy and techniques, marketing, customer success and relationship management. Brendan has particular industry experience helping healthcare technology companies advance their sales success into health plan, ACO and health system markets. Over the last 10+ years, Brendan has helped dozens of founders recognise, attack and overcome the very common challenges unique to early-stage startups: Fear of rejection Dealing with competing responsibilities Handling proposals and customer negotiations Managing the revenue expectations typical of an evolving product roadmap Navigating the complexities of developing a repeatable (and standardized) implementation and successful onboarding process Brendan has also written a book on sales fundamentals, SALES CRAFT, that outlines 50 fundamental sales skills, practices and ideas that every sales professional should consider as they work to improve their sales effectiveness. Key Points of our Discussion Why Founders "fear" the sales function Key challenges for early stage startups Narrowing your ICP before building out the product The unique and powerful position of the Founder The importance of a good system and process Getting into the "expert mindset" Learning to say "no" to a potential customer Brendan's sales accelerator program To connect with, and learn more about Brendan you can find him here on LinkedInDiscover more about his offerings at Kiinetics.com