Author: Reuben Swartz

Scott Ingram is the host of the Sales Success Stories podcast, which I’ve been enjoying lately. Scott’s interviews bring a lot of very specific, tactical advice which is great for people who want details.

• How he got great mentors to help him get his network administration consulting company off the ground.
• How referrals help, but they can only take you so far.
• Why you should pick a sales process– don’t try to invent one.
• Why we often fear sales, and what we can do about it.
• The importance of having a niche (yet again).
• How he created a great, nerd friendly sales shortcut.
• Why it’s easy to recall bad salesmen, but hard to recall good sales experience.
• Why women are overrepresented among top sales performers.
• The promise and peril of The Challenger Sale.
• How to align your sales process to you, so you can sell authentically (and why this is so important)
• The importance of planning and ritual, including Scott’s morning routine (starting at 4:30).
• Why there’s no replacement for “time in the saddle”

Scott was also super helpful as a fellow podcaster, using his (much nicer) setup, so this should sound better than previous episodes, too.

Get the episode now on iTunes, or listen on Overcast.

The Wine

Hawk’s View Cellars Syrah, 2011. Big red, but very smooth as it opens up.

(@HawksViewWines)

Where you can find Scott:

• Sales Success Stories Podcast
• Inspired Marketing Podcast
• @Top1Sales
• LinkedIn

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.

Books mentioned in the Episode:

• The Challenger Sale
• Getting Things Done

The Sales for Nerds Episode with Adam Boyd from Sandler.

The Comodoro Technique, which Scott uses to help him plan.

Need Nudge (relationship app).

Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean and Scaling Lean, talks about how to build products and companies that matter, while minimizing risk. How can you systematically de-risk your business, so you can focus your limited time, money, and energy on what makes a difference. Whether your company sells products, services, or both, tune in, because Ash says, “Life’s too short to build products nobody wants.”

“Lean” has become a buzzword, and you may not know what it really means (or means to you). In this episode, Ash talks about how you can “run lean”– avoiding wasted effort and minimizing risk, and “scale lean”, by giving yourself permission to scale in stages (tweet).

….

In this episode, Ash gives tips on how to avoid wasted effort and minimize risk in a startup, including:

• Why you need to fall in love with your customers’ problem, not your solution.
• How to “get out of the building” to talk to prospects to learn from them (not pitch them), even if you’re actually still in the building. (Advice I wish I had followed many times.)
• How long should it take to prove (or disprove) an idea?
• How Jason Cohen (from Episodes 1&2) used lean techniques to sign up Ash to the earliest version of WPEngine.
• If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around “lean”, consider this: “Don’t build a key first and then try to figure out which door it might open. If you flip it around, and find the door first, building the key is easy.”
• Why the hard part these days isn’t “building the product”, it’s “building the customer.”

And don’t feel bad if you’ve made mistakes on this path.

A reader of Ash’s first book came up to him and said “I wish I’d read this book 5 years ago.”

Ash replied, “me, too.”

Here’s the link to Episode 7 with Ash Maurya.

Books mentioned in the episode:

• The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries
• Running Lean, by Ash
• Scaling Lean, by Ash

The Wine

WH Smith Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2012. (Listed at $58!!! I can assure you can find it for much, much less than that.) Yummy, fruity, strong California Pinot Noir. If you tend to like that kind of wine, you’ll like it. (It’s strong enough that some decanting, or at least airing, would be helpful. Or, if you can be patient, just let it sit in your glass for a while.)

Where you can find Ash: Web site, Twitter

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.

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Guest: Adam Boyd, Partner at Market Sense, a Sandler sales training firm (don’t hold it against him the way I did) and  co-author of Succeed: The Sandler Way.

Adam talks about the importance of process (and why that gives engineers an advantage), why you shouldn’t talk too much (which I screw up in the interview, giving you a good example of what not to do), how to uncover a solution rather than prescribing it, and more.
Here’s the link to Episode 3 with Adam.

The wine: Aegerter Pinot Noir for Burgundy (the year is 2012). Nice French Pinot, not as fruity as what you might be used to if you drink a lot of California Pinot.

The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg

Where you can find Adam: @adamboyd24, LinkedIn.

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com.

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