February 24, 2025 • 14 mins
This week's show is entitled, "Show Me you Know Me! Sales Lessons for Modern Times" and my guest is Samantha McKenna, Founder & CEO at #samsales Consulting.
Tune in to Learn:
- The importance of financial preparedness and building a personal brand for first time entrepreneurs
- Why you need to use the 'Show Me You Know Me' method
- What it really takes for a long-term career in entrepreneurship (and what chewing glass and rocks has to do with it).
Listen Now | Watch the video HERE | Read the Transcript on the Heinz Marketing blog.
Matt interviews the best and brightest minds in sales and Marketing. If you would like to be a guest on Sales Pipeline Radio send an email to Sheena@heinzmarketing.com.
Sales Pipeline Radio was recently listed as one of 30 Best Sales Management Podcasts and Top 60 Sales Podcasts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Matt (00:15):
All right.
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
So excited to have you here with us today.
We're going to do this quick--usually 15, 20 minutes in and out.
But excited to have you here.
Thank you for makingthis part of your day.
Every episode of Sales Pipeline Radio,past, present, and future, always
available at www.SalesPipelineRadio.com.
Super excited we wereable to make this happen.
(00:36):
Sam McKenna.
She is the founder and CEO of Sam Sales.
Sam.
Thanks for being here.
Sam (00:40):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Really appreciate it.
Matt (00:43):
So for those that maybe don't know you and your story, talk a
little bit about your background,how and when you started #samsales
and what you guys focus on.
Sam (00:50):
Yeah, really quick.
So I've been in enterprisesales basically my whole career.
I was in corporate America forabout 13, 14 years before taking
the leap to start #samsales.
I was an IC for seven years, a leader,and then an executive leader after that,
and wrapped up my time at corporateat LinkedIn, which was the holy grail
of places for me to work in the end.
I got to be a leader thererepresenting LinkedIn Sales Navigator,
(01:12):
which I still feel like I bleed#samsales orange out of one arm
and LinkedIn blue out of the other.
I started #samsales in the fall of2019, and we're an all women team of
nearly 20 and have over 250 clients.
What do we do?
We focus on top of the funnelsales training everything to do
with LinkedIn and social selling.
And then we also build brands forexecutives on LinkedIn for LinkedIn
(01:34):
themselves, we're approaching500 execs for celebrities, for
everybody in between all of those.
So that's me and us, fastestdelivery ever in a nutshell.
Matt (01:43):
That's pretty good.
Yeah, I want to talk about the executivebrand building on LinkedIn for a second.
So I started my business in 2008.
It was a terrible time in the market.
And my wife was also pregnantwith her first child.
So who needs healthcare?
When you're having a baby, right?
It wasn't quite that bad.
She's a teacher.
And so like I was on herbenefits for a long time.
It worked out really well, buttalk a little bit about that step.
Cause I talked to a lot of people,maybe you do too, who were like,
(02:05):
I'd love to try to do my ownthing, but they're scared to do it.
And I'm like, you willalways be scared to do it.
What gave you the confidenceand courage to give it a shot?
Sam (02:12):
You will always be scared to do it.
In my career,
broken 13 different sales records.
And when I was at LinkedIn,that was what I broke my 13th.
I was on a plane every single week.
And so I just thought, you know what?
I feel like there is somethingspecial about my methodology.
Whatever it is, I have no idea becauseit all seems really obvious to me.
But I wonder if I can leavethis all behind, right?
And I can take the leap to go andstart a business and work part time
(02:35):
and make half the money I made in SaaS.
That wouldn't be a terrible life.
So I should have known myselfbetter because I'm very type A
and disciplined and that all wentto hell in a handbag in a week.
But I think it's just havingconfidence that what you do is
something that the market needsand there's a differentiator there.
I would say two things, and maybe Matt,you agree or disagree, but I think
one make sure you have some savings.
So no matter how ethically amazing asales you think you are, it will take
(02:59):
a shitload of time for you to actuallyclose deals and do it meaningfully.
And you will run out ofrunway really quickly.
So make sure you're in afinancially stable place.
Give yourself 18 months,24 months of runway.
Maybe 12 months, but give yourselfsome time because that pressure
will stack up really quickly.
I think the other thing ismake sure you have a brand.
So take some time to invest inyour brand, get out on LinkedIn
(03:20):
and start to connect with people.
If you have a bunch of clientsnow, wherever you work in
corporate America, make sure toconnect with them on LinkedIn.
So you're building that personalCRM for yourself, if you will.
But I gave myself that shotand, I didn't even create a
website for I think 12 months.
So that was like, let's see how it goes.
And work email was my personal email.
I don't know, Matt, was it thesame for you or were you like?
Matt (03:42):
Yeah.
People think I'm joking when I say,November 2008, I started with a
laptop and a bus pass, but literally Istarted with a laptop and a bus pass.
Like I had a bus pass that wasgoing to last for another six
months from the job I quit.
I bought a new laptop.
That was my one expenseis I needed a computer.
I've always only had workcomputers, so I need something.
We had a plan, like we basically saidshe's incredible and she believed in me,
(04:03):
but she said we, it's not guaranteed.
So there was a date at which we said, ifyou're not profitable by then, but you
really feel like you have pipeline and arunway, then we can tap into some savings.
But then there was a second date, thatif we hit that date and it really wasn't
happening... It's never over forever.
But it was like, okay, you got togo back and get a job for a while.
Thankfully, things picked up and itstarted out okay, but I don't know if
(04:26):
I'm busting a myth here, Sam, but there'sa phrase that a fellow entrepreneur
here in Seattle used with me recently.
So like doing this is sometimeslike chewing glass, right?
And from the outside, people canlook at this and say, Oh man, you
guys look like you're doing great.
And to hear you, to see you online,Sam, to see the kind of traction
you get on LinkedIn and to hear20 people, all women, amazing.
It is not all amazing, is it?
Sam (04:48):
No.
And you are never done building.
That's the thing.
Like every time you turn around andthere's a new logo, you added a new quote,
a new product that you can develop a slidedeck that needs to be updated because
the last time you did was 18 months ago.
It is like chewing rocks.
You will also never work harder in yourlife, but it is for your own business.
And I think that you're building your way.
I will tell you too, for anyone that'sOh, 18 to 24 months of financial runway,
(05:10):
and that's what you want me to save.
Okay.
Just consider if you stay in corporateAmerica another year, another 18
months, so that you can save that,it's effectively giving you a runway
to make sure that you don't haveto go back to corporate America,
that you have more time to actuallysee if your idea is going to work.
So take it easy, right?
And then make sure you're reallygood to go when you're good to go.
Matt (05:30):
Yeah, I totally agree with that.
And also just don't overengineerthings, when you can just do it.
There's a there's that gap between knowingwhat you're doing and breaking some glass
and testing some things and pivoting,but also giving some things time.
And it's always going to beharder than you think, right?
You're out on your own and you got toeventually you start making payroll.
So you got to keep selling.
(05:50):
And it's just, what's funny, like I'vehad a lot of people and I thought we
were gonna talk about sales, but thisis actually a little more interesting.
So I thought we were going to I,I have a lot of people that say
to go out and do this on your own.
You have to be incredibly risk tolerant.
And I don't know that's actuallythe case because I think that if you
are doing your own thing, part ofbeing successful is mitigating risk.
(06:15):
And I think about this all the time.
Like someone says what's the bigbenefit of having your own business?
One of the first things thatcomes to mind is control, right?
I'm a very anxious person andanxiety is a disease of control.
And I realized I don't controlwhen this deal is going to close
or when this check's going tocome in or whatever that is.
But I control so much more asan owner than I would if I was
a CMO somewhere, to be honest.
Sam (06:36):
Yeah.
And I think no matter what, if you sayin corporate America also you only have
control over so many things, right?
There's a really beautiful partabout creating your own business.
I say this just like the way you wouldmanage your finances early in life.
If you starve, so to speak, for the firstfew years Think about how you can sustain
yourself for the next couple of decades.
And I think the same thing goes here,like maybe after 18 or 24 months, you
(06:59):
have enough savings, you have enoughbuilt up, et cetera, that yes, you
don't know when the next check isgoing to come in and you don't know
if they're going to pay on time.
And we have a client that's 18 monthsin a rear on one of their paychecks.
It's a delightful situation.
But things like that as long asyou prepare and you're ready for
those headwinds, you'll be fine.
I'm not a risky person.
I like control.
I like process.
I like responsibility.
I like having my shit together.
(07:21):
That's the kind of person I am,but you do need to toss some
of that out in the early days.
And just go for it.
I also think, and I don't know if this iswhere this was your path, Matt, but I meet
a lot of entrepreneurs who are like, okay,I built the ship and I need to sell it.
So how do I do it?
And I'm like, why did you build the ship?
And they're like, I thoughtit's what everybody needed.
And I'm like, did you vet this?
Did you ask anyone?
(07:41):
Did you sell somethingbefore it was built?
And then think, okay, Oh, shit.
Now I need to build the ship.
I'm at the P's and the T's.
That's what I would say, becauseI, there's so many people who
build something and then they'relike, I have to go sell that.
Where instead of you say, like,how can it be of help to you?
What do you need?
What can I build for you?
And then you build it for someone,build it for somebody else.
You build a consulting practiceand you find that everyone needs
(08:02):
the same help with the same thing.
So maybe you write a playbook,you start to sell a particular
course that you have online.
You start to see what is rinseand repeat and you can scale.
Do that before you build the shipand then have to find a buyer for it.
Matt (08:16):
All of that and know that playbook will change over the years.
Like what works will change, what's neededwill change, what's perceived will change.
We've certainly seen that, oversort of 16 and a half years now.
We're still generally marketing strategy,consulting for complex sales situations
to build more predictable pipeline.
For 16 years it's been about orchestratingthe go to market motions, right?
(08:38):
All the different outbound motionsacross sales, marketing, CS.
What we've learned over the last threeor four years is the complexity of the
buying journey, the complexity of actuallydoing that work is killing companies.
Gartner calls it collaboration drag.
And so now increasingly, we areproject management experts, helping
people just get stuff done internally.
And so to be able to know the customerwell enough to hear what they're doing
(09:01):
to say, okay, they may still need helpover here, but no one is helping them
actually get the work done internally.
And for a large organization that feelsthat collaboration drag very strongly.
That's a big thing.
So for me as an example, just towhat you said, listening to the
customer, responding to what's needed.
I can go on off on a whole tangent.
I know we've only got maybe aboutsix more minutes-- about people that
(09:23):
build a company where their objectiveis an exit, as opposed to like your
objective is to serve a market.
And if you do that well,the exit will be there.
Anyway All right.
I have two things I want to make sure wecover with you with the time we have left.
We've got Sam McKenna here onSales Pipeline Radio today.
She's the CEO founder of #samsales.
There's probably a very small minorityof people that don't know The Show Me
(09:44):
Method that you promote, but can yousummarize that a little bit for folks?
Sam (09:48):
Yeah.
Show me, is really exactly as it sounds.
It's showing up to know who yourbuyer is, what their space is going
through, what their company is goingthrough and having some kind of
expertise on their entire situation.
It's also getting to know yourbuyers at a personal level.
So do they tell you that they have a dog,that they have kids, that they have a
dream to buy a house in Maine one day?
What is it that you know about them?
(10:10):
And I think if you just look at the mostbasic level, what can you do to employees?
Show me you know me today.
I want to listen back to any of thecalls that you have this week so far.
And if you started the call with, Whereare you based and how's the weather there?
Two things that we probably, A, weknow where they're based because we
can see them on their LinkedIn profile.
Two, be better than the weather, youshould have had some research done, right?
(10:30):
Unless you're British,and then don't yell at me.
But we should have done some research.
We should know somethings about them already.
We should come prepared withsomething to build a report on.
So I think we really lack that.
And especially because there'sso many meetings back to back.
We just think there must bea reason they're on the call.
Why should I bother tolearn anything about them?
What a way to set yourself apart.
It might seem like table stakes andit is, but it just doesn't happen.
Matt (10:53):
There's so much statements in sales and marketing that feel like
table stakes that aren't right.
And we've been talking about accountbased go to market for forever.
And like salespeople sell us, Oh,we've been doing it for forever.
We always manage the buying committee.
Let's look at your Salesforce, shall we?
Like how many opportunities haveone contact associated with them?
You are single threading your deals.
Let's just be clear about whatwe are and aren't doing here.
(11:14):
So I gotta be honest, to me, youcan say, Oh, it's table stakes.
If all you do is table stakes, youwill outsell, outperform everybody.
Sam (11:22):
And then we were in the precarious position where we have everybody on
LinkedIn who thinks that they're aninfluencer and tells you, there was
just a post yesterday that said,stop multi threading your deals.
It's killing you.
And I'm like, please justmake this person go away.
I just like, Oh my God.
Need to judge who you'relistening to as well.
Is it your Matts of the world that reallyunderstand the ins and outs of this space?
(11:43):
Or is it the person was like anAE for nine months to three jobs.
The now says he's a threetimes sales leader-- Oh my God.
Matt (11:50):
And when you talk about getting to know your prospect, even just
taking a couple of minutes and havinga proven checklist and process to find
a couple of things, it doesn't meanthat all of a sudden that cold call
is going to turn into a million dollardeal today, but it's a process, right?
And so I think between, Show meyou know me and having a consistent
presence on LinkedIn and engagingwith people in an authentic way.
(12:11):
These are the building blocks topredictable pipeline, whether you're
an entrepreneur or whether you'rein sales or any go to market motion.
Sam (12:18):
Completely.
And it's all about the long game.
Like I asked our AE about theother day, are you going to
make a career out of this?
Do you think you wantto be in sales forever?
And she said, I ultimatelywant to own my own business.
So you need to start to thinkabout all of these building
blocks for the long term, right?
Write these sales lessonsdown, think about these things,
really focus on how to prospect.
Because even when you are amulti million dollar earning CEO,
(12:38):
you're still going to prospect.
You just will, right?
Even if it's just a little hereand there, learn these things.
They'll never go away.
Matt (12:45):
So if people want to learn more about you, about #samsales if you were
like, I really need to bone up on ShowMe You Know Me, where can people go to
learn more about you and what you guys do?
Sam (12:54):
Everything for free.
You can hop on our YouTube channel.
For still free, go to our website,www.samsalesconsulting.com.
We have a newsletter.
We have podcasts, we have webinars.
We have women's group all free.
If you wanna make a littleinvestment, look on our website
under the shorts section.
We have a playbook or everythingyou can imagine from LinkedIn to
Perfect Profile being an influencer.
Show Me You Know Me to prospectingand everything in between.
(13:15):
And we have a podcast.
So check us out on Spotify.
We prioritize guests that are overseeingat least 250 million in revenue.
And we had an incredible lineup sofar with the great grandson of William
Howard Taft is our fourth guest.
And that was just launched this week.
And I think that's it.
Matt (13:33):
That's a lot.
Sam, you're the best.
Thank you so much for being here.
I know you're super busy.
We'll make sure we get links toa lot of that in the show notes.
Thank you everyone for showingup, being here as we are already
late February as we record this.
It's incredible how fast theyear's gone by, but we'll be here
next week with another episode.
Until then, my name is Matt Heinz.
We'll see you next timeon Sales Pipeline Radio.
Take care.
All right.
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
So excited to have you here with us today.
We're going to do this quick--usually 15, 20 minutes in and out.
But excited to have you here.
Thank you for makingthis part of your day.
Every episode of Sales Pipeline Radio,past, present, and future, always
available at www.SalesPipelineRadio.com.
Super excited we wereable to make this happen.
(00:36):
Sam McKenna.
She is the founder and CEO of Sam Sales.
Sam.
Thanks for being here.
Sam (00:40):
Hi, thanks for having me.
Really appreciate it.
Matt (00:43):
So for those that maybe don't know you and your story, talk a
little bit about your background,how and when you started #samsales
and what you guys focus on.
Sam (00:50):
Yeah, really quick.
So I've been in enterprisesales basically my whole career.
I was in corporate America forabout 13, 14 years before taking
the leap to start #samsales.
I was an IC for seven years, a leader,and then an executive leader after that,
and wrapped up my time at corporateat LinkedIn, which was the holy grail
of places for me to work in the end.
I got to be a leader thererepresenting LinkedIn Sales Navigator,
(01:12):
which I still feel like I bleed#samsales orange out of one arm
and LinkedIn blue out of the other.
I started #samsales in the fall of2019, and we're an all women team of
nearly 20 and have over 250 clients.
What do we do?
We focus on top of the funnelsales training everything to do
with LinkedIn and social selling.
And then we also build brands forexecutives on LinkedIn for LinkedIn
(01:34):
themselves, we're approaching500 execs for celebrities, for
everybody in between all of those.
So that's me and us, fastestdelivery ever in a nutshell.
Matt (01:43):
That's pretty good.
Yeah, I want to talk about the executivebrand building on LinkedIn for a second.
So I started my business in 2008.
It was a terrible time in the market.
And my wife was also pregnantwith her first child.
So who needs healthcare?
When you're having a baby, right?
It wasn't quite that bad.
She's a teacher.
And so like I was on herbenefits for a long time.
It worked out really well, buttalk a little bit about that step.
Cause I talked to a lot of people,maybe you do too, who were like,
(02:05):
I'd love to try to do my ownthing, but they're scared to do it.
And I'm like, you willalways be scared to do it.
What gave you the confidenceand courage to give it a shot?
Sam (02:12):
You will always be scared to do it.
In my career,
broken 13 different sales records.
And when I was at LinkedIn,that was what I broke my 13th.
I was on a plane every single week.
And so I just thought, you know what?
I feel like there is somethingspecial about my methodology.
Whatever it is, I have no idea becauseit all seems really obvious to me.
But I wonder if I can leavethis all behind, right?
And I can take the leap to go andstart a business and work part time
(02:35):
and make half the money I made in SaaS.
That wouldn't be a terrible life.
So I should have known myselfbetter because I'm very type A
and disciplined and that all wentto hell in a handbag in a week.
But I think it's just havingconfidence that what you do is
something that the market needsand there's a differentiator there.
I would say two things, and maybe Matt,you agree or disagree, but I think
one make sure you have some savings.
So no matter how ethically amazing asales you think you are, it will take
(02:59):
a shitload of time for you to actuallyclose deals and do it meaningfully.
And you will run out ofrunway really quickly.
So make sure you're in afinancially stable place.
Give yourself 18 months,24 months of runway.
Maybe 12 months, but give yourselfsome time because that pressure
will stack up really quickly.
I think the other thing ismake sure you have a brand.
So take some time to invest inyour brand, get out on LinkedIn
(03:20):
and start to connect with people.
If you have a bunch of clientsnow, wherever you work in
corporate America, make sure toconnect with them on LinkedIn.
So you're building that personalCRM for yourself, if you will.
But I gave myself that shotand, I didn't even create a
website for I think 12 months.
So that was like, let's see how it goes.
And work email was my personal email.
I don't know, Matt, was it thesame for you or were you like?
Matt (03:42):
Yeah.
People think I'm joking when I say,November 2008, I started with a
laptop and a bus pass, but literally Istarted with a laptop and a bus pass.
Like I had a bus pass that wasgoing to last for another six
months from the job I quit.
I bought a new laptop.
That was my one expenseis I needed a computer.
I've always only had workcomputers, so I need something.
We had a plan, like we basically saidshe's incredible and she believed in me,
(04:03):
but she said we, it's not guaranteed.
So there was a date at which we said, ifyou're not profitable by then, but you
really feel like you have pipeline and arunway, then we can tap into some savings.
But then there was a second date, thatif we hit that date and it really wasn't
happening... It's never over forever.
But it was like, okay, you got togo back and get a job for a while.
Thankfully, things picked up and itstarted out okay, but I don't know if
(04:26):
I'm busting a myth here, Sam, but there'sa phrase that a fellow entrepreneur
here in Seattle used with me recently.
So like doing this is sometimeslike chewing glass, right?
And from the outside, people canlook at this and say, Oh man, you
guys look like you're doing great.
And to hear you, to see you online,Sam, to see the kind of traction
you get on LinkedIn and to hear20 people, all women, amazing.
It is not all amazing, is it?
Sam (04:48):
No.
And you are never done building.
That's the thing.
Like every time you turn around andthere's a new logo, you added a new quote,
a new product that you can develop a slidedeck that needs to be updated because
the last time you did was 18 months ago.
It is like chewing rocks.
You will also never work harder in yourlife, but it is for your own business.
And I think that you're building your way.
I will tell you too, for anyone that'sOh, 18 to 24 months of financial runway,
(05:10):
and that's what you want me to save.
Okay.
Just consider if you stay in corporateAmerica another year, another 18
months, so that you can save that,it's effectively giving you a runway
to make sure that you don't haveto go back to corporate America,
that you have more time to actuallysee if your idea is going to work.
So take it easy, right?
And then make sure you're reallygood to go when you're good to go.
Matt (05:30):
Yeah, I totally agree with that.
And also just don't overengineerthings, when you can just do it.
There's a there's that gap between knowingwhat you're doing and breaking some glass
and testing some things and pivoting,but also giving some things time.
And it's always going to beharder than you think, right?
You're out on your own and you got toeventually you start making payroll.
So you got to keep selling.
(05:50):
And it's just, what's funny, like I'vehad a lot of people and I thought we
were gonna talk about sales, but thisis actually a little more interesting.
So I thought we were going to I,I have a lot of people that say
to go out and do this on your own.
You have to be incredibly risk tolerant.
And I don't know that's actuallythe case because I think that if you
are doing your own thing, part ofbeing successful is mitigating risk.
(06:15):
And I think about this all the time.
Like someone says what's the bigbenefit of having your own business?
One of the first things thatcomes to mind is control, right?
I'm a very anxious person andanxiety is a disease of control.
And I realized I don't controlwhen this deal is going to close
or when this check's going tocome in or whatever that is.
But I control so much more asan owner than I would if I was
a CMO somewhere, to be honest.
Sam (06:36):
Yeah.
And I think no matter what, if you sayin corporate America also you only have
control over so many things, right?
There's a really beautiful partabout creating your own business.
I say this just like the way you wouldmanage your finances early in life.
If you starve, so to speak, for the firstfew years Think about how you can sustain
yourself for the next couple of decades.
And I think the same thing goes here,like maybe after 18 or 24 months, you
(06:59):
have enough savings, you have enoughbuilt up, et cetera, that yes, you
don't know when the next check isgoing to come in and you don't know
if they're going to pay on time.
And we have a client that's 18 monthsin a rear on one of their paychecks.
It's a delightful situation.
But things like that as long asyou prepare and you're ready for
those headwinds, you'll be fine.
I'm not a risky person.
I like control.
I like process.
I like responsibility.
I like having my shit together.
(07:21):
That's the kind of person I am,but you do need to toss some
of that out in the early days.
And just go for it.
I also think, and I don't know if this iswhere this was your path, Matt, but I meet
a lot of entrepreneurs who are like, okay,I built the ship and I need to sell it.
So how do I do it?
And I'm like, why did you build the ship?
And they're like, I thoughtit's what everybody needed.
And I'm like, did you vet this?
Did you ask anyone?
(07:41):
Did you sell somethingbefore it was built?
And then think, okay, Oh, shit.
Now I need to build the ship.
I'm at the P's and the T's.
That's what I would say, becauseI, there's so many people who
build something and then they'relike, I have to go sell that.
Where instead of you say, like,how can it be of help to you?
What do you need?
What can I build for you?
And then you build it for someone,build it for somebody else.
You build a consulting practiceand you find that everyone needs
(08:02):
the same help with the same thing.
So maybe you write a playbook,you start to sell a particular
course that you have online.
You start to see what is rinseand repeat and you can scale.
Do that before you build the shipand then have to find a buyer for it.
Matt (08:16):
All of that and know that playbook will change over the years.
Like what works will change, what's neededwill change, what's perceived will change.
We've certainly seen that, oversort of 16 and a half years now.
We're still generally marketing strategy,consulting for complex sales situations
to build more predictable pipeline.
For 16 years it's been about orchestratingthe go to market motions, right?
(08:38):
All the different outbound motionsacross sales, marketing, CS.
What we've learned over the last threeor four years is the complexity of the
buying journey, the complexity of actuallydoing that work is killing companies.
Gartner calls it collaboration drag.
And so now increasingly, we areproject management experts, helping
people just get stuff done internally.
And so to be able to know the customerwell enough to hear what they're doing
(09:01):
to say, okay, they may still need helpover here, but no one is helping them
actually get the work done internally.
And for a large organization that feelsthat collaboration drag very strongly.
That's a big thing.
So for me as an example, just towhat you said, listening to the
customer, responding to what's needed.
I can go on off on a whole tangent.
I know we've only got maybe aboutsix more minutes-- about people that
(09:23):
build a company where their objectiveis an exit, as opposed to like your
objective is to serve a market.
And if you do that well,the exit will be there.
Anyway All right.
I have two things I want to make sure wecover with you with the time we have left.
We've got Sam McKenna here onSales Pipeline Radio today.
She's the CEO founder of #samsales.
There's probably a very small minorityof people that don't know The Show Me
(09:44):
Method that you promote, but can yousummarize that a little bit for folks?
Sam (09:48):
Yeah.
Show me, is really exactly as it sounds.
It's showing up to know who yourbuyer is, what their space is going
through, what their company is goingthrough and having some kind of
expertise on their entire situation.
It's also getting to know yourbuyers at a personal level.
So do they tell you that they have a dog,that they have kids, that they have a
dream to buy a house in Maine one day?
What is it that you know about them?
(10:10):
And I think if you just look at the mostbasic level, what can you do to employees?
Show me you know me today.
I want to listen back to any of thecalls that you have this week so far.
And if you started the call with, Whereare you based and how's the weather there?
Two things that we probably, A, weknow where they're based because we
can see them on their LinkedIn profile.
Two, be better than the weather, youshould have had some research done, right?
(10:30):
Unless you're British,and then don't yell at me.
But we should have done some research.
We should know somethings about them already.
We should come prepared withsomething to build a report on.
So I think we really lack that.
And especially because there'sso many meetings back to back.
We just think there must bea reason they're on the call.
Why should I bother tolearn anything about them?
What a way to set yourself apart.
It might seem like table stakes andit is, but it just doesn't happen.
Matt (10:53):
There's so much statements in sales and marketing that feel like
table stakes that aren't right.
And we've been talking about accountbased go to market for forever.
And like salespeople sell us, Oh,we've been doing it for forever.
We always manage the buying committee.
Let's look at your Salesforce, shall we?
Like how many opportunities haveone contact associated with them?
You are single threading your deals.
Let's just be clear about whatwe are and aren't doing here.
(11:14):
So I gotta be honest, to me, youcan say, Oh, it's table stakes.
If all you do is table stakes, youwill outsell, outperform everybody.
Sam (11:22):
And then we were in the precarious position where we have everybody on
LinkedIn who thinks that they're aninfluencer and tells you, there was
just a post yesterday that said,stop multi threading your deals.
It's killing you.
And I'm like, please justmake this person go away.
I just like, Oh my God.
Need to judge who you'relistening to as well.
Is it your Matts of the world that reallyunderstand the ins and outs of this space?
(11:43):
Or is it the person was like anAE for nine months to three jobs.
The now says he's a threetimes sales leader-- Oh my God.
Matt (11:50):
And when you talk about getting to know your prospect, even just
taking a couple of minutes and havinga proven checklist and process to find
a couple of things, it doesn't meanthat all of a sudden that cold call
is going to turn into a million dollardeal today, but it's a process, right?
And so I think between, Show meyou know me and having a consistent
presence on LinkedIn and engagingwith people in an authentic way.
(12:11):
These are the building blocks topredictable pipeline, whether you're
an entrepreneur or whether you'rein sales or any go to market motion.
Sam (12:18):
Completely.
And it's all about the long game.
Like I asked our AE about theother day, are you going to
make a career out of this?
Do you think you wantto be in sales forever?
And she said, I ultimatelywant to own my own business.
So you need to start to thinkabout all of these building
blocks for the long term, right?
Write these sales lessonsdown, think about these things,
really focus on how to prospect.
Because even when you are amulti million dollar earning CEO,
(12:38):
you're still going to prospect.
You just will, right?
Even if it's just a little hereand there, learn these things.
They'll never go away.
Matt (12:45):
So if people want to learn more about you, about #samsales if you were
like, I really need to bone up on ShowMe You Know Me, where can people go to
learn more about you and what you guys do?
Sam (12:54):
Everything for free.
You can hop on our YouTube channel.
For still free, go to our website,www.samsalesconsulting.com.
We have a newsletter.
We have podcasts, we have webinars.
We have women's group all free.
If you wanna make a littleinvestment, look on our website
under the shorts section.
We have a playbook or everythingyou can imagine from LinkedIn to
Perfect Profile being an influencer.
Show Me You Know Me to prospectingand everything in between.
(13:15):
And we have a podcast.
So check us out on Spotify.
We prioritize guests that are overseeingat least 250 million in revenue.
And we had an incredible lineup sofar with the great grandson of William
Howard Taft is our fourth guest.
And that was just launched this week.
And I think that's it.
Matt (13:33):
That's a lot.
Sam, you're the best.
Thank you so much for being here.
I know you're super busy.
We'll make sure we get links toa lot of that in the show notes.
Thank you everyone for showingup, being here as we are already
late February as we record this.
It's incredible how fast theyear's gone by, but we'll be here
next week with another episode.
Until then, my name is Matt Heinz.
We'll see you next timeon Sales Pipeline Radio.
Take care.
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