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Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday. 

I got a few responses from the newsletter last week that were something like, " Please shut up about AI; I’m so sick of it.” LOL. 

I get it. AI has jumped the shark a bit, which is why I’ve stopped testing many of the tools available.  

My goal with last week’s post was to show a practical, real-world application that anyone can do without investing in yet another tool. 

I’ll spare you any more AI talk in the newsletter unless I think there’s something really worth discussing.  

In this week’s newsletter, we’re revisiting the fundamentals of trusting your gut and my favorite nugget. 

SALES FROM THE STREETS: TRUST YOUR GUT

TACTICAL TIPS: MY FAVORITE NUGGET

SALES FROM THE STREETS 

Trust Your Gut

I’ve seen a bunch of clips on Instagram recently from “psychologists” talking about how our gut is right more often than not, and we should trust it more than we do.

A few things happened this week that reaffirmed this for me, so I was curious to learn more. 

I did some research and read a few articles and research reports and came across a line in an article that stood out to me:  

“Though difficult to measure and study, research has suggested a sixth sense can be useful in part because it’s based on information we take in subconsciously — our brains ruminate on actual facts more than we realize.”

I’ve always said that one of my superpowers is the fact that I can usually assess a situation, person, or opportunity with limited data points and make a quick decision that tends to work out more often than not.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made plenty of bad decisions, but I’d rather make a quick decision and have it not work out than waste a ton of time overanalyzing the decision and never make it. 

This week (and the research) reaffirmed that I need to continue to trust my gut.

A few months ago, I had just lost a $400k deal that I wrote about in a previous newsletter, and revenues were tight.  

I decided to take on a few opportunities that I knew weren’t a great fit for me but would help me pay the bills. 

These were outside my main skill set and also very close to conflicting with my Core Values, which I never compromise. 

Even though my gut told me not to take them on, my logical brain took over. 

It was like a light switch had gone off almost immediately after I signed these contracts.  A bunch of prospects I had been working on all decided to move forward simultaneously.

These were all opportunities that I was a perfect fit for and knew I could knock out of the park. 

Unfortunately, I had committed to other opportunities that weren’t a great fit, and I had to deal with them.

Just as I expected, they ended up being a nightmare for me. I worked five times harder to fulfill those contracts and made far less money than I did on the ones that were a great fit. 

It’s a lesson for me in trusting your gut and never chasing bad revenue.

Many entrepreneurs and sales reps make this mistake. They chase bad revenue or customers because they think “any revenue is good revenue,” especially when they need to pay the bills. 

That is categorically untrue in my experience. 

All revenue is not good revenue.

If a client is a pain in the ass in the sales process, I guarantee they’re going to be a pain in the ass as a customer. 

Doing average work for bad customers will prevent you from doing great work for ideal customers. 

This is why a big fat pipeline solves all problems.  If you have a big fat pipeline, you put yourself in a position where you WANT the business instead of NEEDING it.  

When you want the business, you sell the right way. When you need the business, you do things that you know aren’t right for you. 

(p.s. - if you want to learn how to keep your pipeline filled with quality opportunities, you should check out my Membership, specifically the Filling the Funnel program.  Newsletter members can get a 25% discount by using coupon code JB25 at checkout. 

TACTICAL TIPS 

My Favorite Nugget 

This is my absolute favorite tactical tip, and I use it myself and include it in all my training. 

It’s called the “Summary Email” and is one of the best ways I manage expectations, understand true business needs and accelerate my pipeline.

It helps with active listening, aligning expectations, holding people accountable and ghosting.

Here’s how it works during and after a meeting with a client:

1. Listen and take notes during your meeting 

2. Set expectations with the client at the end of the meeting by saying:

   • “Thanks for your time today.  There are some next steps and action items, but before I do that, I’m going to briefly summarize what I was able to gain from our conversation today and send it over in a quick email after our meeting. Could you take a look at it and let me know if it’s all accurate and if I missed anything?

3. Right after you get out of the meeting, summarize your notes in this type of format and highlight the following key items:

   • Current solution

   • Compelling Event/Pain/Problem  

   • Business Impact of the Problem 

   • Decision criteria (prioritized) 

   • Decision Process and Who Is Involved 

   • Timeline 

   • Next steps

4. Send the Summary Email to the client and ask them to confirm it

   • If they do, you should feel pretty good about the opportunity 

   • If they don’t, I would be nervous 

5. If you have not confirmed, then you can use it in the following ways:

   • Include as the first point on the agenda for your next call to confirm if everything is still accurate 

   • Review it with other stakeholders to see if they’re aligned

   • Assist with the handoff between SDR and AE or AE and AM

   • Avoid getting ghosted

By the way, I used to do all this manually (take notes, summarize them, pull out key take-aways and more).

Now, using Otter.io's new Pilot for Sales, I’ve been able to automate almost all of it and save myself a ton of time. 

It transcribes my calls live and allows me to highlight key points. It also automatically extracts insights and summarizes them for me immediately after the call.   

And the best part? I can Ask OtterAI about past meetings I’ve had and it gives me all the things I need to know (perfect for those with a bad memory like me).

PS. Otter is hooking up anyone who signs up with this link free access to their entire OtterPilot for Sales tool. I cannot even begin to tell you how much of a game-changer this has been for me.  

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalog so you can level up your sales skills every day!  3000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?

• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)

• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently.