Category Archives: Sales / Traction

Ep 237 – Praxis CEO, Isaac Morehouse on Selling to Your Very First Customer and How to Maintain Company Culture During Rapid Growth

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-4 Hello Success in Business Podcast listeners! Welcome to Episode 237. We are here for you every Monday to teach you about success in business and today is no different.

Today Tom Ryan has invited onto our show an incredible entrepreneur, Isaac Morehouse. Isaac has created a business named Praxis that provides intelligent and talented individuals with apprenticeship positions at startup companies. Praxis is an alternative to a traditional university experience, which is a welcome option for many who are daunted by expensive tuition and an ever-growing, post-graduation unemployment outlook.

Tom starts off by talking about finding alignment and selling with integrity. The best salespeople identify value for value and create that really strong partnership. There is a certain perception around sales, unfortunately, but sales is a transference of feeling.

With a startup at first, your company culture is just you and 4 other people, but then you have be work to create, or rather, strive to maintain that actual culture for your company.

Isaac shares how he got his very first customer by using real emotion and personal experience. As the business started to grow, they were happy to have new questions to face. For example, how to you scale? For him, building a functional sales funnel is harder than building a brand new product. But, he is sill building new systems and he has learned to find people who loves the parts he doesn’t love and that can be a real shot in the arm to any startup.

The truth is employers want to hire people with initiative and practical experience and in many fields a typical Bachelors degree simply does not mean that graduates are prepared for the workplace. Isaac has been able to see past our present expectations of a normal education and has partnered with many great startups to provide paid apprenticeships to students and give them a concentrated, powerhouse of an education!

Learn more about Praxis by clicking here.

To listen to Isaac Morehouse’s Podcast visit IsaacMorehouse.com

Tweet Tom at: @TomRyanAVL

Do you have a question about your business? Tom would love to help you:

Leave a voicemail: (801) 228-0663

E-mail your questions: SuccessInBusinessPodcast@gmail.com

Like this podcast on Facebook

Follow this podcast on Twitter: @TomRyanSIBP

Get every episode free: Subscribe in iTunes

Ep 236 – Praxis CEO, Isaac Morehouse on Career Exploration

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-4 Hello Success in Business Podcast listeners! Welcome to Episode 236. We are here for you every Monday to teach you about success in business and today is no different.

Today Tom Ryan has invited onto our show an incredible entrepreneur, Isaac Morehouse. Isaac has created a business named Praxis that provides intelligent and talented individuals with apprenticeship positions at startup companies. Praxis is an alternative to a traditional university experience, which is a welcome option for many who are daunted by expensive tuition and an ever-growing, post-graduation unemployment outlook.

When Isaac talks to parents about their children doing a Praxis apprenticeship he still picks up on the reluctance of that generation to miss out on college, even though they know full well that graduates aren’t getting hired. He reminds them that it’s not about pro-college or anti-college; it’s about pro-your child succeeding.

He compares it to a pick-up truck. In some cases pick-up trucks are a good investment and in some cases they aren’t. It depends on your situation. If you are planning to become a doctor or a lawyer, then you are still going to need credentials and licenses and college, frankly. But, if you are looking into marketing, sales or programing and you can do the work, then Praxis can get you there.

People are more likely to be interested in design and marketing than they are to interested in sales. Not many people say that they want to go into sales. Yet, many jobs in marketing look a lot like number crunching all day.

Growing up, kids think that their career choices are pretty much astronaut, fire fighter, business person. So many people end up in sales! And even if they wouldn’t officially consider themselves a salesperson, they are better at what they do because of their background in sales.

The truth is employers want to hire people with initiative and practical experience and in many fields a typical Bachelors degree simply does not mean that graduates are prepared for the workplace. Isaac has been able to see past our present expectations of a normal education and has partnered with many great startups to provide paid apprenticeships to students and give them a concentrated, powerhouse of an education!

Learn more about Praxis by clicking here.

To listen to Isaac Morehouse’s Podcast visit IsaacMorehouse.com

Tweet Tom at: @TomRyanAVL

Do you have a question about your business? Tom would love to help you:

Leave a voicemail: (801) 228-0663

E-mail your questions: SuccessInBusinessPodcast@gmail.com

Like this podcast on Facebook

Follow this podcast on Twitter: @TomRyanSIBP

Get every episode free: Subscribe in iTunes

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: What Kind Of People Do You Need To Sell Your Stuff?

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Four Ps 2016It’s no accident that the last “P” in my “Four Ps of Sales” is “People.” To see the right results from your sales, you need to have the right process in place first. From there, you need to figure out your optimal sales performance, and then use that information to establish what you can afford to pay for sales. Only after you have all that in place can you start finding the right people to plug into the process.

Salespeople don’t define your sales process. They’re a resource within the overall sales solution. They’re a critical resource, no doubt, but they need to be a part of a larger, highly organized and optimized system. Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: The Fundamentals of Sales Pay

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Four Ps 2016Compensation is always a hot topic in the business world. It’s something that both startups and established companies struggle with, and something that sales experts are in constant debate over. It’s a subject I’m asked about all the time in my role as a business coach, and it’s also a practical question I’ve had to take on more than a few times as an entrepreneur.

At the core of all this discussion and confusion is a surprisingly simple question: How much should I pay for sales? Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: Performance in the Sales Cycle, as Demonstrated by Kickass Cat Sweaters

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Even cats appreciate a high-quality cat-hair sweater. (Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thetopaz/)

Even cats appreciate a high-quality cat-hair sweater. (Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thetopaz/)

You’ve figured out your average sale. You’ve nailed down your expenses. You’ve worked out your gross margin, operating expenses and net profit. But there’s one piece left to go before you have a clear picture of your sales performance: How long does it actually take to make an average sale?

This is called the “sales cycle,” and it measures the time span between making the first meaningful contact with a prospect to a finalized sale. The sales cycle provides you with that final piece of information you need to fully understand your sales performance, allowing you to create accurate sales predictions into the future. This is especially useful for companies that haven’t yet reached a profitable stage, allowing them to accurately estimate their capital needs as they approach profitability.

Let’s take a look at how this works by way of example. On the Success In Business Podcast, co-host Jason Pyles and I have created a purely fictional company called “Kickass Cat Sweaters.” Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: Performance Fundamentals

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Four Ps 2016The second “P” in my “Four Ps of Sales” is “Performance.” In a sales context, performance represents the number of sales you need to make in order to meet your goals. To accurately gauge your performance, you first need to know what those sales goals are.

This means getting a firm grip on your expenses and your revenue needs. A surprising number of people find this part of the sales process intimidating, as it involves a little number crunching. It’s not that this math is complex — it’s pretty basic stuff, actually — but any time you have to break out a calculator, a certain percentage of people’s eyes start to glaze over.

It’s not always easy to make financial projections seem lively. You might not be on the edge of your seat as you read this post, but I’ll do my best to keep this part as painless as possible. Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: What’s Required To Make A Sale?

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Four Ps 2016One of my stranger pastimes is to take a look at all the different sales training methodologies out there. I consume sales books, breaking them down chapter by chapter to glean any new insights I can. I’ve also been through most of the major sales programs out there, and I’ve attended countless workshops and seminars on the topic. It’s safe to say that I’m a lifelong student of sales.

One of the biggest criticisms I have of what’s often called “sales training” is that it’s not focused on the fundamentals. Instead, they focus on the “tips and tricks” of sales technique. Some of these things can be useful from time to time, but without a firm grounding in the core principals of sales, they tend to come across as pretty desperate.

You’ve probably encountered this “magic bean” approach to sales. There are a lot of people selling the idea that you can make millions of dollars by “just asking this one simple question.” That’s utter B.S., as any experienced salesperson will tell you. If you want to see real results, you have do to the real work of sales. Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: 10 Key Sales Process Questions

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Four Ps 2016Process is the cornerstone of truly professionalized sales. With the right sale process in place, optimizing your sales performance becomes much easier. A great process will help you find and retain the right sales people, and even help them meet their goals.

There’s no one-size-fits-all method for building a sustainable, predictable sales process. Every company is different, as is every market. To be successful, your sales process needs to fit the needs of your business, your customers, and your industry. The better the fit, more consistent your results.

To help you find the right fit for your sales process, I’ve written a list of 10 essential questions you need to answer. Continue reading →

Tom Ryan’s Four Ps of Sales: An Introduction

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Four Ps 2016It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs and business owners are intimidated by sales. Few subjects have been more discussed, dissected, theorized about, and lectured upon than the most profitable process for selling things. Countless books, workshops, video series and training seminars are devoted to every aspect of the sales process, from the most broad generalizations of sales philosophy to the most obscure minutiae of process.

That’s always bugged me. Why does the business of sales have to seem so complicated? As entrepreneurs, why don’t we have something simple that explains the core concepts? Why isn’t there a “Four Ps of Marketing” for the sales process?

After some thought, I decided it was high time to create one. I call it the “Four Ps of Sales.” Sure, it’s a little on the derivative side, but it works. Continue reading →

Ep. 176 – Selling Through Storytelling, Part 6

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-4It’s late in the initial sales meeting. You’ve told the prospect about how your business was able to help a company that was in a situation very similar to the one your prospect is facing. You explained how the results you delivered were worth every penny of the investment. You’ve even helped to prospect to visualize how your products or services could help them overcome their own challenges. Now, it’s time to see just how serious they are about moving forward.

In this final installment of the Selling Through Storytelling series, host and business coach Tom Ryan explores the likely prospect responses to a narrative-based sales approach. Learn what reactions indicate that it’s time to move forward, and which suggest that it’s time to “cut bait” and move on. As always, Tom is joined by producer and co-host Jason Pyles. Continue reading →