full

Ep 303: Selling Smarter, Not Harder: A Strategic Approach for Entrepreneurs with Liz Heiman

Are you an entrepreneur struggling to grow your startup or established company? This episode is for you. Elzie talks to Liz Heiman, a sales consultant and expert in startup growth. Liz shares her knowledge of building a successful sales team, establishing a culture of sales within your company, and managing your sales funnel effectively. She emphasizes the importance of creating a mission, vision, and values-driven plan, conducting strategic planning sessions, and hiring people who fit those values.

Liz explains the significance of having a Sales Operating System that includes strategy, lead generation, sales process, key account management, and team management. She offers valuable advice on managing a sales funnel and building relationships with customers based on trust. She also suggests that salespeople start with a simple CRM and advises looking into tools that can help put the sales process together, simplify it, and move sales forward.

Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn from Liz's expertise and take your sales game to the next level. Tune in now and discover how you can achieve sustainable growth through effective sales strategies.

Episode Highlights

05:37 - Your sales team is the heart of your business. And everybody says, "Oh, no, no, my product is the heart of my business." Well, it may be the soul of your business, but it is not the heart, because it is the sales team that pumps the lifeblood through your organization and keeps it going. Because without that heart pumping, there's no company. And if you think about it, your heart isn't in your pinky. Because if it were in your pinky, it couldn't pump life blood through your body. It's in the center of your body for a reason, because it needs to be there. And your sales team is the center of your business, because it's all about the customer. And your sales team is the first team that really touches your customer directly. Marketing may influence them, but the sales team touches them.

16:19 - In sales, there are a whole bunch of companies that have created methodologies, and you may have heard of some of them. Sandler is one of them. The Challenger Sale is one of them. There's a new one called MEDDIC. I don't know how new it is, but that's kind of a methodology. I come out of the world of Miller Heiman. So, Miller Heiman created programs called Strategic Selling, Conceptual Selling, and Large Account Management. And that was really the early days of creating methodology or process around sales. So, Solution Selling was also happening at the same time and SPIN Selling was also created about the same time. These are also methodologies. And these are the very beginning of "Hey, there's a process that you follow to do this."

20:43 - This is going to be really shocking to everyone, I know, but leads do not come out of thin air. They are not like combustion from nothing. They actually have to come from somewhere. So, either your marketing team has to generate them or your sales team has to go out to events, or you have to call people. Somewhere, these leads–and you need a plan. You need a strategy. What activities are we going to do, and what results do we need in order to pay for those activities? So, there's a strategy.

28:14 - Yes, it has to be a good fit.  Yes, it has to be the right solution.  But people matter.  People always matter.  And I have customers that they have a two or three year sales cycle, that relationship matters over that time.  And if you let that relationship go and don't pay attention to it, somebody else is going to go make a relationship and when it's time to make the decision, somebody else is going to be in there.  So yes, it matters.  You matter as an owner, as a salesperson, anybody, you matter.  How people feel about you matters. You need to be kind and curious and compassionate and all of those things. It matters.

31:55 - If you don't put stuff in the top of the funnel, there's not going to be anything to come out in six months. So if I am tracking my leads, my opportunities, or my deals, either in a spreadsheet or in my CRM, then I ought to be able to look at it and go, yep, I need 20 things to come out the bottom. I got 200 things in the top of the funnel and I'm moving them through slowly. And I know this one's going to close in six months and this one's going to close in nine months and that one's going to close in twelve months. Right. So that we're actually mapping their journey through our sales process or through our funnel as they're making buying decisions. So that's what I would teach you, and I would teach you to set process up based on stages, not activities.

Master Your Journey

💬 Want more than just another post in your feed?

Join The Journey Feed — a private stream where I share exclusive insights, behind-the-scenes reflections, spiritual discovery and real-time updates you won’t find on social media.

🎧 It’s also the best way to go deeper with the Journey to Mastery podcast and get early access to what I’m learning, building, and navigating — all through the lens of faith and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.

👣 This is your space to stay connected and aligned as you grow. No noise. No fluff. Just clarity, intention, and inspiration for the road ahead.

👉 Join the Journey Feed

Support me as a creator

If the Journey to Mastery podcast has encouraged or equipped you on your entrepreneurial journey, I’d be honored if you’d consider supporting the show so we can keep empowering purpose-driven entrepreneurs like you!

Sponsor

This podcast is brought to you by Podcast Town: Professional Podcast Solutions for B2B Leaders Focused on Growth and Authority.

Powered By Podcast Town

We Help B2B Brands grow their revenue through podcasting.

Podcast Town is a full-service, white glove podcast agency dedicated to helping B2B brands grow their podcast show, grow their audience and podcast easier. - We help you launch, Grow and Maximize!

Grow With Podcast Town

Connect with Liz Heiman

LinkedIn

Website

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Journey To Mastery
Journey To Mastery
Master You. Master Purpose.

About your host

Profile picture for Elzie Flenard III

Elzie Flenard III

Elzie D. Flenard, III, also known as "The Mayor," is a multifaceted entrepreneur, creative thinker, and dedicated family man with a fervor for igniting the spark of enterprise in others. Born in Chicago, IL and raised in the small town of Mounds, Illinois, Elzie's humble beginnings have shaped his approach to business and life, teaching him that no matter where one comes from, success is within reach.

Support the podcast by leaving a generous tip.

We hope you're enjoying the podcast as much as we love creating it! If you've found our content valuable and wish to support our mission of empowering entrepreneurs, consider leaving a generous tip. Your contribution, no matter how big or small, helps us keep the fire of entrepreneurship burning and allows us to continue providing high-quality content for all. Remember, every bit of support counts and is greatly appreciated!

Thank you for being a part of our community!
Leave a tip!
A
We haven’t had any Tips yet :( Maybe you could be the first!