Episode 65: Richard Harris

Richard Harris is on a mission to address a serious problem in the Sales Development world: why don’t we train our Sales Development Reps?

Sure, we give them a few weeks of product training and show them how to use Salesforce, but where does it go from there? Hope they produce high quality Sales appointments by trial and error, and smile and dial? Hope is not a strategy.

Forget it. To achieve high performance, SDR’s must be continuously training. And Richard has cracked the code on Sales Training through his methodology at Harris Consulting.

He also innovated with his own Conference with Scott Leese, surfandsales.com

And he’s be sharing some of his secrets at The Sales Development Conference in August!

Still haven’t picked up your Sales Development Conference Tickets yet? Early Bird SOLD OUT but hit me in the comments if you’d like a hook up. This Conference will sell out.

Summary:

In this episode, David chats with Richard Harris, of The Harris Consulting Group. Richard’s work involves teaching sales reps how to earn the right to ask questions and which questions to ask and when. Today, he talks about the 4P’s that continues on to sales and sales development. Tune in as Richard drops valuable information that everyone in sales development should know.

3 Key Points:

1. Let your representatives audit the process, not the management.
2. Sales and salespeople are not replaceable commodities.
3. Always figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:01 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
• 01:07 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
• 01:28 – David introduces Richard to the show
• 02:21 – How Richard works with companies:
  • Focusing on the SDR
  • Middle the funnel
  • Sales operations
• 04:20 – Customer success is a MAJOR sales component
• 04:42 – Richard finds a strong niche in customer success
• 05:59 – The shift in consulting and sales
  • The millennials are always reading and willing to learn
• 08:03 – The 4P’s that continues on: Process, People, Planning, and Performance
  • “Anything comes back to those 4P’s”
  • The world of business moves quickly today
  • The missing pieces are usually in these 4P’s
  • Richard reminds to: Examine your processes along the way
• 10:50 – Starting down with a top-down and bottom-up strategy in unpacking the sales process
• 12:53 – Richard’s favorite question to ask:
  • If you could snap your finger 3x now and make something better tomorrow, what would those 3 things be?
• 13:40 – David mentions the book, The ONE Thing
• 14:35 – Tip for the People category: Start with an ideal candidate profile
  • “Stop discounting experience in the SDR world”
  • Make sure you leverage technology
  • Always hire in pairs in sales
• 18:42 – Accelerate your growth at The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
• 19:58 – Planning – Happens everywhere
  • Map out what the next 5 days look like
  • “You’ve gotta put the plan together before you execute”
  • Most CEOs think of sales as a replaceable commodity
• 22:47 – “Sales reps, SDRs, AEs, customer success reps are NOT commodities”
• 23:48 – Richard’s advice to CEOs on putting people in place
• 24:56 – Richard highly recommends reading The Sales Development Playbook
• 27:00 – Performance: What metrics and KPI’s to look at
  • Metrics are straight up numbers, KPI’s are conversion ratios
  • “Start small. Don’t try and do all of them”
  • Look at data quality first
• 31:58 – You want to figure out what works and what doesn’t
• 33:54 – Richard shares about the Surf & Sales Summit
  • Conference with Scott Leese
  • Covering all kinds of topics
• 37:19 – Richard is coming to the The Sales Development Conference on August 31, 2018
• 38:05 – Subscribe to our show on YouTube and review us on iTunes
• 38:12 – Contact us to discuss your sales development needs

Resources Mentioned:

• The ONE Thing – Book David mentioned
• The Sales Development Playbook – Book that Richard highly recommends
• Surf & Sales Summit – The conference Richard and Scott Leese came up with
• Scott Leese – Richard’s partner in creating the Surf & Sales Summit