This article was published on September 8, 2015

10 podcasts to sharpen your sales skills


10 podcasts to sharpen your sales skills

In the competitive 21st century marketplace, it’s more important than ever to keep your sales skills sharp. Regardless of how busy you are, podcasts provide an opportunity to continue learning without disrupting your daily routine. Whether you’re traveling, exercising or sitting in a waiting room, podcasts allow you to engage in professional development whenever you want, wherever you want and for as long as you want. However, there’s a dizzying number of sales podcasts to choose from, so we’ve compiled a list of 10 podcasts that are well worth your time.

  1. The Advanced Selling Podcast

The difference between low-performance salespeople and high-performance salespeople is fulfillment. Bill Caskey, a sales development leader, author of Same Game New Rules and the creator of the Sales Leadership Academy, and Bryan Neale, a veteran trainer and speaker, teach you how to build a stellar sales force by motivating your team.

Some of the most popular iTunes podcast episodes include “5 Ways to Improve Your Sales Funnel,” “The Best Advice We Ever Got—5 Lessons to Inspire You” and “Business Development vs. Sales—How Do You Measure Up?” There are more than 300 episodes, and none of them are longer than 15 minutes, which is convenient if you don’t have a lot of time.

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2. The Sales Playbook Podcast

Paul Castain, who has mentored more than 10,000 sales professionals and is the former director of corporate solutions sales for Dale Carnegie, merges traditional sales methods with social media tools and personal branding. His highest-rated podcast episode is “The Opportunist’s Guide to Leveraging the Holiday Season,” and other popular episodes include various quick sales tips that offer advice on presentation skills, negotiation, winning back lost business and competing with higher priced products and services.

The length of episodes ranges from three minutes to 44 minutes. “One of the best sales gurus out there,” says one iTunes reviewer.

3. The Sales Evangelist

So passionate about sales that he’s been dubbed “the sales evangelist,” Donald Kelly has interviewed and been trained by some of the best experts in marketing, sales and business. He’s so enthusiastic about sales that he created a podcast to share his knowledge with others. “How to Use Email to Sell,” “How to Use LinkedIn to Sell” and “Social Selling Practices” are his most popular titles.

The episodes range in length from six minutes to 44 minutes. Kelly’s passion is contagious—one reviewer remarks, “Ever heard of Dave Ramsey? Dan Miller? Zig Ziglar? Donald Kelly and his new podcast The Sales Evangelist will leave you as fulfilled, inspired and educated.”

4. SalesGravy

The SalesGravy podcast features a variety of expert sales professionals, including Jeb Blount, the author of People Buy You, and Drew Stevens, PhD, who is known as “the sales strategist.” Most episodes are relatively short—ranging from six minutes to 12 minutes.

Podcast Mic

“Loose Lips Sink Deals” and “3 Questions That Matter Most This Year” are Blount’s most popular episodes, while Stevens’ most popular topics are “Sales Fitness—Cold Calling” and “Lead Generation Success.” One reviewer calls Blount, “Simply awesome,” while another reviewer says that Stevens’ episodes “have a real-life application.”

5. The Funnel

The Funnel is a podcast presented by the Alignment Group to provide sales recruiting and sales leadership advice to small and midsize businesses. The company also provides marketing advice and ways to generate leads and increase revenue growth. The company’s co-founders John Shea and Lindsay Kelley discuss popular topics such as “The Hidden Weaknesses,” “Blogging,” “LinkedIn” and “The Hype Surrounding Social Selling.” The length of episodes ranges from six minutes to 38 minutes.

6. Sales Moment

The Sales Moment podcast features Pierce Marrs, the president of Marrs Coaching. Marrs spent 30 years training and managing sales professionals and now focuses on providing sales and life skill tips to individuals, religious organizations and small businesses. He is also the founder and host of the Shark Tank Fan Podcast. The most popular episodes are “Taking the Fear Out of Cold Calling,” “Thank You to Stephen R. Covey” and “I Eat No’s for Breakfast.” In describing the podcast, one reviewer enthuses that you can “learn how to sell without being a jerk.”

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7. Sales Tip a Day

Chris Hamilton of Sales Tip a Day (STAD) Consulting offers podcasts to help individuals and companies attract prospects and turn them into clients. The episodes range from one minute to over an hour. “Why Don’t People Ask for Referrals” is his most popular episode. Other interesting topics include “How to Stop Cold Calling and Use Webinars for Sales Leads,” “Using Content Marketing to Replace Cold Calling” and “Why Cold Calls Don’t Work.”

8. Linking Into Sales

Linking Into Sales is a social selling podcast for sales and marketing professionals. It was created by Martin Brossman, who has written several books including How to Use Hashtags and Social Media for Business, and Greg Hyer, who is the co-author of Linking Into Sales. Podcast episodes can be as short as 12 minutes or as long as 33 minutes. Titles include “3 Tips to Get the Sale,” “The Social Sales Toolbox” and “Building a Professional Network.”

9. The Sales Leader Blog

The Sales Leader Blog by Colleen Francis provides cutting-edge strategies for sales leaders. As the owner of Engage Selling Solutions, Francis helps organizations develop and hone their sales teams and target new customers. The Sales Leader Blog podcast episodes are short, ranging from one minute to nine minutes each. Episode titles include “Hiring Your Competitors,” “Quotas and Measurement” and “No Sales Territory, No Sales.” Sales and Marketing magazine called Francis and her company, “one of the top five most effective sales training organizations in the market today.”

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10. Sales Lead Management Association Radio (SLMA)

The SLMA podcast assembles a collection of sales industry leaders to provide advice and best practices regarding marketing and sales management. The podcast episodes range in length from seven minutes to 29 minutes. Episode titles range from “Images and Graphics for Marketing” to “Why Storytelling is the Best Way to Connect” to “How to Turn Website Visitors into Leads.”

Read Next: ‘The Pitch’ is a podcast version of ‘Shark Tank’ for startups

Image credit: Shutterstock

This post first appeared on MBA@UNC.

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