7 Best Sales Leadership Podcasts for 2023
The top sales leadership podcasts from The Adapter’s Advantage are packed with advice for sales leaders and managers.
To put it mildly, 2022 was an up and down year for sales teams and their companies.
The start of the year was full of promise and growth as people began to return to in-person meetings and events. The end of year, on the other hand, has been uncertain and stressful. Hyperinflation, layoffs, and budget restraints weigh heavily on everyone.
These turbulent times will be with us as we enter 2023, making the sales manager’s role more important than ever. Your sales reps, many of whom have never sold in this type of economic climate, need your guidance and leadership.
Fortunately, there are a lot of sales leadership podcasts and resources to help you. Many of those sharing their expertise were guests on Allego’s The Adapter’s Advantage podcast during the year, including Jennifer Stanley, Partner at McKinsey & Company; Terry Coutsolioutsos, Commercial Leader at Siemens Healthineers North America; and Ryan Thompson, Senior Director of Global Sales Training at Medtronic.
The following sales leadership podcasts are packed with advice to help you lead sales teams through challenging times, as well as help your sellers learn, grow, and feel included.
7 Sales Leadership Podcasts for 2023
Embrace New Technology
Jennifer Stanley, Partner, McKinsey & Company
If you want to future-proof your sales strategy, you must embrace new technology, said Jennifer Stanley, Partner at McKinsey & Company, during the episode Mastering the Omnichannel Sale.
“If the sales manager is the force multiplier for skill building, technology is the force multiplier for your entire organization and for your customers’ experience,” she said.
That doesn’t mean just using a CRM, Stanley warned. Yes, a CRM is an important piece, as salespeople spend a lot of time engaging with it. But sales reps must have the ability to use and feel confident using multiple technical platforms.
Do your sellers know how to use a virtual meeting tool? Are they able to have conversations with buyers on multiple platforms (social, mobile, chat, etc.)? Do they know how to use your sales enablement platform? Can they create digital sales rooms for their buyers?
“Sales executives must step back and ask the question: ‘How much of my sales capacity could I put on any digital platform today?’ Then, depending on what the answer is, they can have a conversation about the next stage of training and what they need help with.”
Equip Sellers to Handle Any Environment
Terry Coutsolioutsos, Commercial Leader, Siemens Healthineers North America
Hybrid selling is here for the foreseeable future. While sellers may have hoped the tapering of the pandemic would bring a return to sales as usual, it turns out many buyers like the virtual options.
Not only that, but buyers like a self-serve model and communicating with sales reps on their terms.
That means sales leaders must prepare and train their sellers to handle any environment, said Terry Coutsolioutsos, Commercial Leader at Siemens Healthineers North America, during the episode Bringing Value to Buyers and Sellers, one of the top sales leadership podcasts of 2023.
“I had a really interesting conversation with my head of sales education, and we talked about creating virtual selling skills versus selling skills. And we decided that it’s just selling skills. And it needs to encompass virtual, it needs to encompass live, it needs to encompass mobile, whatever it might be,” he said.
Developing these skills is challenging, but sellers need all of them. “So, we need to equip ourselves to handle any environment at any time,” Coutsolioutsos said.
Create Peer-to-Peer Learning Experiences
Ryan Thompson, Senior Director, Global Sales Training, Medtronic
The 70-20-10 model for learning and development says “individuals obtain 70% of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20% from interactions with others, and 10% from formal educational events.”
It’s imperative, therefore, that sales reps receive experiential learning as part of their sales training, said Ryan Thompson, Senior Director, Global Sales Training at Medtronic, during the episode Driving Diversity & Fueling Growth.
“You can gain that experience on your own over time, but it takes a while to become an expert, to build trust with your customers so you can become a partner and more of a consultant than a sales rep,” he said.
Peer learning can help accelerate that knowledge transfer by allowing you to learn from others’ experiences, he said.
“From a business perspective, it’s critical we leverage the vast experience of all of our peers who have gone through those challenges and faced those things that [others] are going to face,” Thompson said.
It’s also important to leverage technology to increase those experiences, he added.
“Video is critical to this. [Learning] becomes more relevant and more real with that type of approach than just hearing someone’s voice,” Thompson said.
Make Product Launches Dynamic
Dan Smaida, Sales Training Consultant
When you launch a new product, you give your sellers all the content, collateral and messaging they need—and send them into the field. It doesn’t end there, though, said Dan Smaida, a sales training consultant, during the episode Winning the Complex Sale.
“Great product launches are adaptive. They’re not static,” he said. “They’re dynamic. They’re iterative.”
You must do a couple important things to make that happen. First, get feedback from your sellers in the field. You must be able to collect feedback and communicate it with all of your sellers. Second, you must adapt your approach based on what is succeeding.
“You need to be able to adapt, distribute, and adjust behaviors that are working and help people become more effective in real time,” Smaida said.
That includes the messaging that sellers put in their emails, what they say in voicemails, and how they introduce the product or position it in live virtual conversations.
“If that looks the same on day 15 and day 30 as it did on day one of the launch, I wonder what they’re missing,” Smaida said.
Create an Inclusive Sales Team
Lori Richardson, Founder, Score More Sales
Women have been working as sales professionals for centuries. One of the most famous is Persis Foster Eames Albee, considered the first Avon Lady, who began selling in the 1800s. Despite women’s strong performance in sales, they represent just 29% of B2B sellers and only 26% of sales managers, according to a study conducted by Xactly.
Lori Richardson, a revenue growth strategist and founder of Score More Sales, wants to change that.
“I’m devastated that women are still underrepresented at every level in selling and, in particular, in sales leadership,” Richardson said during the episode Activating Sales Strategy. “The higher you go, the fewer women you see. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason for that other than old traditions die hard.”
For more women to take on sales roles, a few things have to happen, she said.
First, people must be allies to women.
“One thing that is working is there are many more communities and groups of women and male allies getting together. I write about them on the Women Sales Pro blog. By having multiple voices say the same thing, we’re going to affect more change for more women in sales,” she said.
Second, sales teams must drop their traditional requirements and adopt a more flexible work environment.
“For example, you can be a sales leader and not have to be a road warrior,” Richardson said. “If I can be a sales leader and work remotely, that encourages more women to be in that role. So, if a company’s leadership will encourage [remote work] and if women will step up and take that role, we will see more women in sales.”
Adopt a Digital Mindset
Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO, Selling Power
In-person selling and events happen more often as the world moves to a post-pandemic era. However, technology that helped organizations continue to operate during the shutdown are not going away and will continue to evolve. Sales reps must stay current on new tools or risk losing to competitors.
“There are two poles around which the world revolves. On one pole, you have technology; on the other, you have psychology. Both are pivotal,” said Gerhard Gschwandtner, Founder and CEO of Selling Power, during the episode Adopting a Performance Mindset.
With the first, you want to improve the technology your sales team uses and always be on the hunt for the best tools for your team. Ask yourself: What is the best technology that you can use to be digitally transformed and digitally agile?
Sales leaders must “adopt a digital mindset because we are living in a data-driven world that is going to be ruled by AI. And if you don’t keep up, you cannot play,” Gschwandtner said.
The second is psychology. Sales reps are human beings, and you need to understand humans resist anything new.
“So, sales leaders need to help people adapt and make it easier for them to adapt,” Gschwandtner said. “But I think at the heart of all of this is the mindset for innovation. Set some time aside, and even schedule on your calendar, at least an hour a week to focus on reinventing yourself.”
Create an Environment Where Each Person Can Be Their Best Self
Tim Welsh, Vice Chair, Consumer and Business Banking, U.S. Bank
Humans want to be the best at what they do—to be their best selves. They do that by living out their purpose and continuing to learn and grow. Sales leaders need to help their reps achieve that, said Tim Welsh, Vice Chair, Consumer and Business Banking, at U.S. Bank, during the episode Having a Sense of Purpose.
“As leaders, part of our opportunity and, frankly, part of our obligation, is to create an environment where every single person that we’re privileged to work with can be their best self as often as possible,” he said. “Because who doesn’t want to go to work in that environment?”
That was one of the things folks at McKinsey talked a lot about related to learning and development at the firm, Walsh said. And part of that is helping people have the mindset that they’re going to learn and grow—and that making mistakes is part of that.
“We have to create an environment where it’s OK to make mistakes … where we all support each other, where there’s a spirit of generosity,” he said. “That doesn’t mean they’re always going to be agreed with but that we’re going to work out our differences.”
So, your sales reps need to have a sense of purpose. Everyone has to know why they’re coming to work every day and have an environment in which they can achieve that sense of purpose.
“And you do that by having a growth mindset, by creating a safe environment, by creating an environment of generosity,” Walsh said. “And if we can get that magic going, together we can change the lives of lots and lots of people.”
Learn More
Listen to all episodes of The Adapter’s Advantage podcast to hear more sales leadership podcasts and get additional advice to help you adapt to challenging situations.