4: Justin Michael - How Technology Can Enhance and Support Traditional Selling
Justin Michael - How Technology Can Enhance and Support Traditional Selling Episode Summary: Welcome to Sales Tech, the show that talks about sales technology, what’s working, what’s not and where the industry is going. In this episode, Justin Michael joins the show to discuss his background as a tech futurist. Justin is probably one of the most experienced people out there to talk about sales technology. He’s the author of the upcoming book, Tech Powered Sales, and he has worked with over 100 startups to select the right technology for them to use. Thom and Justin talk about the ever-growing need for sales technology, why some organizations are resisting and pushing back and competing against marketing for a share of budget. Justin expounds on the concept of guided selling and why it is what excites him the most about the future of sales tech. Finally, Justin provides his thoughts on solving problems of inefficiency with multiple sales technologies. What We Covered: 00:23 – Thom introduces today’s guest, Justin Michael who joins the show to discuss the inspiration to launch the Sales Tech Podcast 01:41 – Justin provides tips for salespeople on how they can be more successful when it comes to technology 03:35 – Why organizations are resisting learning about new sales technologies 06:54 – Justin explains the explosion of marketing technology 10:54 – Solving efficiency problems with technologies that don’t coordinate with each other 13:57 – Justin expounds on the concept of guided selling and the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays into it 16:10 – Justin identifies where he believes pushback towards sales technology is coming from 18:27 – What sales can do to gain a share of the marketing budget 21:00 – Justin shares what excites him the most about the future of sales tech 23:05 – Thom thanks Justin for joining the show and encourages listeners to join him in future episodes Tweetables: “I really believe that opening is the new closing. Because digital outreach has been weaponized, the average decision maker is getting 250 emails a week and robocalled to death. And so the question really becomes, ‘How do we leverage advanced technology to improve the sales process and make a better prospecting customer experience in a world where there’s just so much noise?’” (01:02) “Only fifteen percent of high growth companies even have what is called Sales Engagement Platforms – an SEP – or a sequencer. And it’s often relegated to Gen Z and Millennials to figure it out.” (04:22) “The efficiency games are wild. A team of five reps can have the impact of fifty using some of these technologies.” (06:38) “Guided selling is this incredible way to set machine learning algorithms and Artificial Intelligence to be looking at these complex problems for you, as an assistant, to make sure if something is going to be a problem you can predict it.” (15:25) “I think the important thing is to expand your mind to make money to save money. And you’ve got to spend money to make money.” (19:22) “I’m excited about the role that technology can play to enhance and support traditional selling.” (22:44) Links Mentioned: Justin Michael on LinkedIn Tech-Powered Sales: Achieve Superhuman Sales Skills Zoom Slack LinkedIn Learning Salesforce Trailhead SalesLoft Outreach Groove XANT ringDNA LinkedIn Sales Navigator Zoominfo LeadIQ Seamless.AI ConnectAndSell Gong Chorus Tenbound Aragon Research lemlist Amplemarket Apollo.io PersistIQ Syncery Tray.io Workato Zapier Amazon Mechanical Turk Salesforce Einstein Dunbar Number Bombora Snowflake The Product Lead Growth SDR Podcast Salesforce