Brian Cristiano Shares Sales Tips for Introverts and How to Avoid Getting Ghosted

Have a great business idea but you’re not so great at sales? Brian Cristiano is here to help. During this chat you’ll learn how to win bigger deals, speed up the sales process and avoid getting ghosted.

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Brain Cristiano started his career with no connections and a video camera – now he has helped transform many prominent brands including Jennifer Lopez, Alex Rodriguez, and the New York Mets. Today he’s here to help us think through how to improve your sales tactics and land deals that you’re proud of. 

2:35 – Brian’s “why”

3:41 – Impact of personal brand
When you have built-in trust in a personal brand, it enables you to make pivots a lot faster. 

5:09 – The question no one asks around sales (but you should be)
Should I scale? 

You could have a $100 million dollar business with no free time, 2% margins, and no creative freedom. That’s miserable. You need to start by thinking about the life you want to build, and work backwards. 

17:00 – How to shorten the sales cycle
If you have a longer sales cycle, figure out how you can provide your potential customers with value. It strengthens your relationship and trust.

Does the sales cycle really need to be that long? Instead of trying to sell a complex, pricey package, ask if there could be a wedge product, something that’s a smaller ask that you can start with. The smaller solution you offer can lead to the bigger solution. 

9:15 – Wedge products/services and strategy
Most people who sell B to B, they put their all into big proposals and all-out plans that take a lot of approvals to say yes to. They put everything into one swing of the ax. What they should be doing is cutting a notch, inserting a wedge, and then start work on felling that sales tree. 

11:20 – The A.C.T.I.O.N. model

A, audits

C, consulting

T, training

I, implementation 

O, ongoing retainers

N, new opportunities

14:23 – How to avoid getting ghosted
This often happens because the solution you’re proposing is too complex. When communication starts to flicker out, you need to come in in command of the situation. Look at the solution you’ve proposed, and when it would need to start, then email your lead and say, “Hey, I was looking back over our proposal and I realized that to achieve your desired outcome we’d need to start in a couple of weeks. Because I know it’s important to you, I’m keeping a team ready for you – should I keep them on hold, or should I move them on to a different project?” 

16:50 – How someone who is terrible at sales can improve 
A big part is getting reps in, and practicing. You just need to start, and begin getting good at connecting with people and proposing simple solutions clearly. 

18:28 – How to get over the intimidation of putting yourself and your company out there in sales
Know that it’s not about having the answer to every question, it’s about asking the right questions to get these prospects seeing the problems within their business, and the solutions that you can offer them.