Sales & Marketing Playbook: Unleashed
"Sales and Marketing Playbook: Unleashed" is a dynamic and informative podcast that provides listeners with the essential strategies, tactics, and insights to excel in the world of sales and marketing.
Hosted by industry experts and thought leaders, this podcast delves deep into the latest trends, best practices, and innovative approaches that drive success in the competitive business landscape.
Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, "Sales and Marketing Playbook: Unleashed" offers a treasure trove of actionable advice, real-world examples, and inspiring interviews to help you unlock your full potential and achieve outstanding results in sales and marketing. Join us on this journey of discovery, growth, and transformation as we unleash the power of effective sales and marketing techniques.
Sales & Marketing Playbook: Unleashed
Summer Sales & Marketing Refresh: Tuning Up for Year-End Success
The halfway point of the year often sneaks up on us—one moment we're setting ambitious goals for January, and suddenly we're staring down July, wondering where the time went. This critical juncture demands honest reflection: Are you on track to hit your annual targets, or do you need to recalibrate?
Evan Polin and Craig Andrews deliver a masterclass in mid-year sales strategy assessment with their "Summer Break, Time for Sales Tune-Up" episode. They break down four essential areas every sales professional needs to evaluate now: messaging effectiveness, pipeline reality, CRM optimization, and skills development. The summer months—with fewer networking events and client meetings—create the perfect opportunity for this strategic reset.
When examining your messaging, the focus shouldn't be on creativity but consistency. As Polin emphasizes, "If something's working, how can we double down, triple down?" This data-driven approach eliminates the common sales tendency to chase shiny new tactics when existing strategies are already proving effective. Similarly, your pipeline requires brutal honesty—are you hanging onto opportunities from last November simply because removing them feels uncomfortable? The hard truth: "I have worked with very few people who get paid on what's in the pipeline. Almost everybody only gets paid when somebody becomes a client."
The podcast also tackles CRM maintenance (suggesting monthly check-ins) and the importance of continuous skills development. Just as elite athletes never stop training, sales professionals must regularly sharpen their fundamentals—from elevator pitches to referral conversations—to stay competitive. This summer tune-up isn't merely administrative; it's the strategic reset that positions you for accelerated success when business activity intensifies after Labor Day.
What one thing will you implement before summer ends? Share in the comments for some public accountability—studies show you're more likely to follow through once you've stated your intentions!
Thank you, evan Poland, the president of Poland Performance Group. A master in sales coaching with over two decades of experience, evan is not just a consultant. He's a force in sales, focusing on mindset planning and skill development. He's also the co-author of Selling Professional Services, the Sandler Way. Joining him is Craig Andrews, partner and CEO of Beholder Agency. An expert in growth marketing With 20 years under his belt, craig blends marketing creativity with strategy to propel businesses forward, making Beholder Agency a leader in effective marketing solutions. Together, evan and Craig are here to share their wisdom on winning strategies, best practices and transformative insights that will fuel your growth. Get ready to revolutionize your sales and marketing approach right here on the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed.
Speaker 2:And welcome to the Sales and Marketing Playbook Unleashed. I'm Craig Andrews and my partner in crime right Wrong way. That way right.
Speaker 3:You had like a streak of four or five episodes just gone, ruined.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, this sets up perfectly about the topic of our show in terms of the summertime, right? So just yesterday it felt like it was January 1st. Happy New Year. We're all excited and, lo and behold, we are here in July. We're here in July and now this is a pivotal time in business, and why don't you explain why, evan?
Speaker 3:Sure, and the topic for our podcast today is the summer break, time for sales tune up. We're a little bit more than halfway through the year. Yeah, a lot of us were really ambitious in November and December, setting goals for the year. What we don't want to do is get till November, december, take a look back and go. Oh yeah, I kind of sort of remember what my goals were, and either you were off track or on track.
Speaker 3:Summertime is a great time to take a step back, to reflect, to look and see what happened in the first part of the year, what worked, maybe what didn't work so well. But this time, you know, right now we're recording this episode, it's mid-July, july, august. There tends to be less networking events. There's not as many trade shows. Some people are away, some people are, you know, taking a little bit of a break. This is a perfect time to take a step back. Perfect time to take a step back, reflect. Let's see what the results were. How is the year going so far? What needs to be done? What do I need to recalibrate to get back on track, to be able to hit my goals as we move forward?
Speaker 3:And today we're really going to look at kind of four main areas in terms of what we should be inspecting, what we should be looking at, what may need to be recalibrated. We're going to look at okay, what is our messaging From our messaging? What's worked, what hasn't worked? Let's take a realistic view of our pipeline. Do we have enough in the pipeline? Is what's in the pipeline realistic or is it there just because it's making me feel good? But do we need to kind of really look at what's's in the pipeline realistic or is it there just because it's making me feel good? But do we need to kind of really look at what's real in the pipeline? What needs to be taken away so that we can really look at things fresh?
Speaker 3:Let's make sure that we're doing what we can with our CRM. Are we tracking? Are we looking at our numbers? Are we looking at the data? And then, finally, what we want to look at is okay, what's my skill set? What do I need to work on? What's going well with the team? What's not going well with the team? What do we need to refocus on a little bit so that we can make sure that we've got all of the right tools in place to be able to make sure that we are overhitting our goal for the year and making 2025 our best year ever. So do you want to start by maybe talking a little bit about, in terms of messaging, what messaging people should be looking at, how they can know whether it's working, whether it's not working.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the beautiful thing about what you just brought up there in terms of the messaging is, you know, a lot of times I have clients who do a bunch of different messages and hope it works, and there are some that takes their time and measure it data in terms of how that messaging works. So the summertime is a great time to reflect on the data and see what messages actually stuck. A lot of times we do the test in terms of what are people saying about you when you're not in the room, right? So we'll kind of reference the people.
Speaker 2:But a lot of times, with the emails and stuff like that that's being sent out, we have to really understand precisely what the messaging is talking about, and so the summertime is a great opportunity for people to test their messaging for the second half of the year, which is beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's an opportunity to say OK. I set out five different email messages, and the one that really stuck was one. Well, I like to work in the simple versus make it more complicated. Instead of keep trying to experiment, I would probably say OK of that one. Why did it hit, break it down and then really be in a situation of double down on it, right? And so when you have that messaging, that works a lot of times, especially as we hit the second half of the season we really want to be closing out, to hit our year it's easier sometimes to stick to that simple message. So you really want to refine those messages In terms of voicemail or social messages.
Speaker 2:All of these things go hand in hand. There's a lot of updates that's happening right now when it comes to social media and the Internet and AI, which I'm sure we're going to probably at some point, have a show about AI and, ultimately, those type of things that can come about through those messaging is vitally important. No, another thing is the messaging means nothing If you don't have the right personality profile avatar. You know whatever word you want to use, the messaging means nothing If you're not targeting the right people. And so, ideally, what you're doing in the summertime is you're reflecting on who the client base that's.
Speaker 2:As Evan likes to say. They're not, but are they profitable, which is a big part of it, Right? So the things that you use before in terms of what's working we call them vanity metrics, right, the things that, oh, I got a bunch of, I got a bunch of likes, I got a bunch of emojis and things like that, but did they contact you? Right? And then that's where you want to take those metrics down a little deeper, which is great, and so the summertime is a good time for that. Evan.
Speaker 3:So with your clients, they like the kind of metrics that involve them going to the bank versus just getting that. Oh, I feel good because people like the cute picture that I put up.
Speaker 2:That's correct. That's correct Because at the end of the day, at some point in time, especially as it gets to the end of the year, they go. We didn't make as much as we thought we should have, right, and so either way, if it's now or it's later, they're coming back to that metric.
Speaker 3:So and I agree with you completely, if something's working, how can we double down, triple down, see if we can do more of that to get more and better results, versus just getting creative and doing lots of different stuff and throwing lots of stuff against the wall to see if something sticks.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Evan. Why don't you tell us a little bit in terms of the pipeline? I know that's a big thing you beat us up on.
Speaker 3:So go ahead. The pipeline is really important and halfway through the year there's really two ways that I like my clients to look at the pipeline. First is taking a look back. Okay, those opportunities that closed out, either we won them or we lost them. Let's go back and look at those opportunities that we won. How did we get in front of that opportunity? Can we do more of that kind of activity to drive more of those kinds of opportunities, more of those leads? Is there something that we've done, maybe a campaign that we've run, an association that we've done, where we've lost 100% of the opportunities that came in from that?
Speaker 3:If that's the case, going back to what you just mentioned about avatar, do we have the right message for the right audience? Are we in front of the right folks? Do we need to tweak a little bit what we're doing? So that's the look back, and I think I've mentioned it on the podcast before. I will say it again Every opportunity I've had in my pipeline for the last 20 plus years, I put what activity or what different groups of activities led me to get in front of that opportunity. So I can know okay, I closed 15 pieces of business based on this. I closed three pieces of business based on that. I spent X number of thousands of dollars and X amount of time on that and I can't track anything coming from that. Is that something I really want to continue doing or do I need to cut that out of my prospecting Because it's not leaving any results in the pipeline and actually real quick.
Speaker 2:The one thing I want to add to that statement what's very important is make sure that it's repeatable all the time. I think a lot of people on our end in terms of being creative, a lot of people on our end try to be more creative even though it's working and the reality is what I'm hearing you saying is stick to it, get the measurement, keep it simple, move on.
Speaker 3:And I have found, especially with more traditional salespeople, they get bored. So something may be working, but it's all. I've been doing this for a while. Let me do something. I saw a new shiny object over here. I saw this new you know penny over there when oftentimes, just keep it simple stupid. If it's working, just keep doing it over and over and over again. It's funny.
Speaker 3:A lot of the salespeople that I work with have a hard time doing that. I think they've naturally got a lot of a DD, adhd, and they can't stay focused where a lot of the professionals I work. And they can't stay focused when a lot of the professionals I work with. I give a lawyer, I give an engineer, I give an accountant something that works and they will beat it into the ground. They will do it over and over and over and over again and for some reason they don't get bored by success. And they don't get bored when they keep seeing results when sometimes the salespeople, as successful as they might be, it's well, geez, is there a different way? I could do this. So again, we want to make sure that we don't get caught into that trap. The other thing we need to do when it comes to the pipeline is this is a great time to be realistic If you've had something in the pipeline since last November, unless there's something major going on in the company where you know there's going to be a major event that's going to happen. It's going to be the trigger point to then somebody moving forward and working with you. We might want to see is is that a real opportunity or am I just feeling a little uncomfortable? Am I feeling a little upset because I don't have more in my pipeline so I'll just keep that in there?
Speaker 3:I know for me throughout my career when I had a fuller pipeline, I didn't feel that pressure to go out and to continue to prospect. But sometimes, if you're more realistic with yourself, cut the garbage out of the pipeline. Cut out the stuff that you really know doesn't have any chance of closing. It will allow you to see exactly where you stand and inform the behavior of exactly how much activity that you need to do to get real opportunities in the pipeline. Because I have worked with very, very few people who get paid on what's in the pipeline. Almost everybody I've worked with over the last 23-24 years only get paid when somebody becomes a client, when somebody places an order. So we really need to be realistic about what's in that pipeline and this time of year is a great time of of year to do it.
Speaker 3:An activity I have my clients do, um is a close the file day. So if you've got six, eight, ten opportunities that are hanging out there that you just can't get an answer, one way or the other is to reach out and almost take away. So if you are a prospect of mine, I might say hey, craig, it's evan. You know it's been three or four months, haven't heard back. I get the feeling that you've already moved on or the issue that you were talking to me about is no longer an issue. If I don't hear back from you in the next week or so, I'll just close things out. On my end, the last thing I want to do is be a bother. If things ever change, you're welcome to give me a call back.
Speaker 3:I find that people don't like that decision being taken out of their own hands and there are a handful of people maybe 15, 20% of people that will get back to you and go no, no, no, no, no, don't, don't close my file, don't take me out, and then you'll be able to get back on track, but it's a really great exercise to be able to purge those things out of your pipeline that don't really have a chance of closing and then identify the two or three that you may actually be able to move forward with and then help you figure out okay for the rest of the year.
Speaker 3:This is what we need to do. I think you've just seen, with my partner, we just created a cookbook Excel spreadsheet tool so that people my clients can plug in real time numbers what's their closing percentage, how many large, midsize, small clients do they want, how many opportunities they need in the pipeline. Being real with your pipeline can help you do a really good job with that exercise so that you know exactly what you need to do to be able to hit your goals. So once we go through that, Craig, do you want to talk a little bit about how people should be looking at their CRM, what they maybe want to look at when it comes to their tech stack, to again make sure that things are aligned and they're pushing in the right way as they get to the second half of the year?
Speaker 2:Absolutely and I think to kind of piggyback on the in terms of the pipeline that you were referencing. You know all of these things are meant to work together, right? And so as we talk about the tech stack or the I'm sorry the CRM, the thing to understand is it's meant to make your job easier. So part of the boredom that's coming from the sales guys is because now a lot of things becoming automated, right. So all that extra time that they had to fill in all the paperwork and the Excel sheets and so forth is become a lot harder, I'm sorry, a lot easier to do through the automation in your CRM, which is why we promote a CRM so heavily, crm so heavily. It gives opportunity to go back to my statement data, data, data and get an idea of that pipeline and bring it more to life, right. So Evan has us using the same cookbook we've been using for years. Every year we use the same cookbook to kind of get an idea, when we do our review half of the year, where we're going to go. But what we try to do is we try to get into the CRM to help us optimize.
Speaker 2:How long have I been hanging on to that pipeline client? And so if it's in a situation where there's a series of emails that go through, it's really important to make sure that your CRM is up to date. Now, how many of us here you all can be honest out there in America, how many of us out here stays on top of keeping that thing up to date? It's hard to do, and so you have to find ways to make your system work together. We ourselves, right now, because it's summer are going through a complete tech stack update to make sure that all of our stuff is in alignment with each other, to try to push us through, because of the fact that, whether me or my partner has information in, we're all seeing the same partner. Because the last thing you want to do, evan, you're prospecting somebody and then I jump in on your lead because we didn't communicate.
Speaker 3:I've seen fistfights in offices when that happens.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and a lot of times that's only because that tech stack is not up to place. So the summertime is an awesome time to make sure that your data is accurate, that it's cleaned out, that it's reporting appropriately, because you can make dangerous moves into the second half of the year with wrong data and you can move very fast with wrong data, like, for instance, we just recently did our own CRM review to find out two people that we've been prospecting no longer work there.
Speaker 3:Tough for them to make a decision if they're no longer there.
Speaker 2:Or nor do they care, right. So that type of stuff, in terms of making sure it's accurate, is very important, because as you start to make plans, you start to do messaging and start to do how we're going to reach out to these people, you need to make sure that your tech stack is available. Here's what I would suggest as a quick action step a CRM maintenance block in terms of per month. Right, so it's hard, but if you, technically, are inputting it properly, then the process gets easier down the end. But if you haven't put in your calendar in advance one day to review the recent month and see where things are and that's a great way to make sure that in terms of your CRM, things are up to date If you're like most people who have tons of papers lying around like I do, shame on me. I get it, I get it. Shame on me. That stuff has to be into a centralized place, just so that you don't have people freaking out in terms of where's the information.
Speaker 2:Where is it at? Very very important and, with the summer being a little bit slower, now's the time to catch up, because we've both been there where it comes up into the fall right. September, october hit and we're back on the spree doing our work real quick before that close out of the year happens right, yeah, now, from from labor day to thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:For most people, it's just a spring so having that tech stack during the summer time. Now we're giving you the play here. We're giving you the play. It's like if I had a clipboard right now and I'm drawing it up for you. And I'm drawing up a play for you, coach.
Speaker 3:We're giving you the tush push, that's right. We're giving you that 90-some percent success rate when the Eagles are going to get into the end zone.
Speaker 2:That's right, and now's the time to do it. Yes, you're on vacation we get it. Yes, you have family obligations we get it. But this part is just as important because it really sets you up for the second half of the year. So, evan, in terms of the skills that you need during this break, what do you want to talk about?
Speaker 3:time for teams to go back, for teams to refresh, for teams to reflect. Hey, let's go back and look at those opportunities that didn't come in. Was it that we were in front of the wrong prospect? Was it that we didn't qualify well enough, especially if it was in the pipeline for a long time and we were prospecting it for a long time? Jeez, when's the last time that people within the organization practiced their elevator pitch? If you've got an organization that does multiple things, is everybody on your team able to speak to all of the different things that you do, at least to be able to identify opportunities? If not, we may want to come back, we may want to do a lunch and learn and make sure that people understand the talking points, the pain points for all of the different products and services that you provide.
Speaker 3:How is the networking going? How are we doing, geez, if we've gone back through the pipeline and almost nothing in there has come from a referral? Geez, when's the last time we refreshed, asking for referrals, asking for introductions? Does everybody know the right way to do it, a professional way to do it? Maybe we even set incentives for the team?
Speaker 3:Hey, we want to, between now and the beginning of August, everybody to go out and have four referral conversations and the goal is for each of us to come back with at least one referral. But this is a great time to take a step back again, based on what's in the pipeline, based on what's closed, based on why we're losing business in the pipeline, based on what's closed, based on why we're losing business, to figure out what we need to work on. And now is the time, on a friday afternoon in the summer, um, when it's a little bit slower to do that refresh, do that training. Now. I'll be on site monday and tuesday with the company doing a two-day training because they've got no conferences now, they don't have any networking events. Great time for their team to get refreshed, to practice those skills so that they're hitting the ground running as they're moving into the fall, moving back into that conference and trade show season.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to tell everybody and Evan's going to hate me for doing this- but I'm going to do it anyway, because I know him so well.
Speaker 2:Now is the time to rethink, because he has a 12-week training program that helps you refresh all of this stuff from a sales perspective. Reach out to Evan. I promise you it will be worth your while. It's important to understand the skill set and here's the problem that we deal with on the marketing side and the sales side. The problem we deal with is that we in our industries deal with a lot of assumptions. If I build a website, people will come Not true. If I just show them how to sell on the phone real quick, they'll figure it out. Wrong Assumptions kills everyone.
Speaker 2:So one of the reasons why you have consultants like us is that we go back to the nitty gritty and go back to the basics so we can figure out where the loophole is in your process and once we figure that out, then we can help you push forward and we get a lot of pushback. I don't like that color. I don't like that font in our side. This is saying too much and we have to go back and go listen. Remember they don't know you yet. They don't know you yet.
Speaker 3:And you know, some people listening to the podcast don't know that you are a world-class college athlete, that you are a college coach. I'm very into sports. You may not know it from looking at me, but I'm very much into sports. Your best athletes got coaching practice, were always looking at how to make their game just a little bit better. Marketing and sales is the same thing. They are skills. If you don't practice, you're going to fall behind If you're not staying on top of what's going on. I promise that your competition is out there constantly trying to get better, wanting to eat your lunch, wanting to take your clients. So it's important, both from the marketing side and the sales side, to stay relevant. Stay on top of things, practice those skills, otherwise your competition is going to pass you by.
Speaker 2:And that's, without a doubt, right. So I want you guys to understand if any of this information that we have given you in this podcast, or anyone before, is valuable to you, do us a favor Like, comment, share, subscribe. Share it to somebody else who might need this information.
Speaker 3:OK, so and when? When we post this up, when we put this podcast up on LinkedIn, I'd love you to again comment, under this particular podcast, what's one thing that you're going to try to implement between now and the end of the summer. You know, mention it, just drop a line, just so other people can see what each other is doing and so that now you've got some of that public accountability, you've admitted out loud what you're going to do. If you do that, there's actually a much better chance that you'll follow through and do it.
Speaker 2:And so, Evan, why don't we give them a wrap up in terms of the four?
Speaker 3:topics that you covered. So, again, today, what we talked about was really looking at your messaging and really going through the messaging to make sure that that's up to date, that we're making the tweaks that we need to make, that we've tracked what's worked and what's not worked, that we are looking at the pipeline and what's in there, what's realistic, what's not realistic, making sure that we're cleaning up that pipeline, tracking what worked and what didn't work, that you're going through your CRM, you're going through your tech stack review and then, finally, you're taking a step back. You're looking at your skills. You're looking at your skills. You're looking at what you need to tweak, what you need to develop, what new skills you need to bring to the table to make sure that you've got everything that you need to be successful and knock it out of the park for the second half of the year.
Speaker 2:That is awesome, sir, and so, as usual, I'm Craig Andrews.
Speaker 1:Evan Poling I got it.
Speaker 2:I learned quick and listen. This is the sales and marketing playbook. If you have any questions, you have any comments, you have any concerns or you want to bring a question to the show, by all means, as Evan mentioned, make it make a mention in the comments. We're willing to answer questions that you have, because we have a plethora of information that we can spread upon our audience. Evan, do you have any last words before we close out?
Speaker 3:Just continue to watch out for new episodes dropping. This is just. You know, with that continuation of the summer school, we will have three or four more of these episodes. We're going to have a lot of exciting guests coming your way, so make sure that you're liking, subscribing, listening and commenting.
Speaker 2:Awesome, as you heard the boss and we'll talk to you guys next time. Be good now.
Speaker 1:Awesome, as you heard the boss and we'll talk to you guys. Business reaches unprecedented levels of success. Don't forget to subscribe to the sales and marketing playbook unleashed on all major podcast platforms, and follow us on YouTube, facebook and LinkedIn for even more exclusive content. Until next time, keep hustling and keep winning.
