Chris Rivers

Joined August 2022
Generating and ultimately landing sales is all about understanding your customers- which sounds simple enough until you realize that only 13% of customers believe that salespeople understand and care about their needs.

WOW! So, what is it that makes people distrust salespeople?

There has to be an underlying issue somewhere - and if I had to guess, there are two major roadblocks standing in the way:

  1. You’ve never been through your own...
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Chris Rivers
 Allison…great points shared here. 
 
The “go through your own buying process” strategy is clutch! 
 
It’s the ONLY way to truly see a sales or lead generation process from a customer's perspective. 
 
And when that strategy is coupled with your second strategy of role-playing and reviewing sales conversations, it becomes much clearer why prospects and customers see things very differently than “we” see them. 
 
Great insights you shared! 
One of the more overlooked and powerful features of HubSpot is the ability to easily run A/B tests.

In HubSpot, you can run A/B tests on:
  • Marketing Emails
  • Call-To-Action (CTAs)
  • Landing Pages
  • Website Pages
Most marketers, (if they run A/B tests) choose the email route, opting not to mess with the website. While it is less stressful to play it safe, HubSpot makes it easy A/B test three (yes, three!) different aspects of your website.

Why is...
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Chris Rivers
 Great point Will! 
 
It’s so true…without running tests and getting that feedback, there’s no way to know what’s working best right now! 
 
One of the keys that have helped me is embracing a “tester’s mentality” instead of an “I set it up once and now it’s done” mentality lol. 
 
So embracing that mental shift is HUGE because the tendency we all slip into is to make a list, check things off, and move on to the next.
 
So, embracing a “tester’s mentality” and starting small as you advised Will is a crucial first step. 
What does being at your best look like? Well for me it's making sure I get to the gym most days of the week. Let me explain why: I've been doing CrossFit for almost 10 years now. I used to coach classes. I even met my husband at a CrossFit gym. If I'm not in the gym, we have a problem; it has a huge impact on how I show up everywhere else in life. So I prioritize fitness because it makes me an all-around better person. It truly is...
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Chris Rivers
My daily/weekly non-negotiables are: 
 
1. Morning walks & Exercise - allows me to get moving and spend time organizing my thoughts & aligning my spirit/heart with the best plan for the day. 
 
2. Reading & studying - a sharp, well-informed and focused mind is likely my most valuable tool. 
 
3. Laughing/talking with my wife & kids - it’s amazing how a home filled with joy gives life meaning & purpose. 
Today, I got this text from my 17 year old son, Rob. (The school name has been blurred out to protect the guilty)


The Smith family has seen a lot of college recruiting emails.

I have 3 kids. A sophomore already in college, a senior and a junior in high school. We've all seen plenty of college recruiting emails, most are pretty forgettable.

But which emails stand out? Simply put, the ones that are on opposite ends of the quality email spectrum.

...
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Chris Rivers
You're so right Will! Just like you, as parents of teenagers, I've seen dozens of emails and letters that are generic and filled with obvious and irrelevant boilerplate sentences and sections. It definitely reflects poorly on the sending organization and communicates that they didn't care enough to proofread or test it. We also have never taken up any of those offers. Measure twice and cut once comes to mind.
As a manager, one of the areas I spend a lot of time focusing on with my direct reports is optimizing their day and giving them the space to do their best work.

One resource that I have been diving into to educate myself on this more is a book called Peak Performance by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness.

Chapter 7 explores the idea of discovering the best time of day for your own optimal performance. Scientists refer to those who work best in...
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Chris Rivers
Lol...I'm a lark and completely agree that my best ideas come during "off-time" when I'm on my daily walks around the neighborhood. I've also noticed that I don't get the same result when I'm walking on a treadmill. So I always strive to carve out time for my daily walks to give my subconscious mind time to "bubble up" those great solutions/ideas.
There is 1 thing you could do this week that would improve your TAYA efforts by at least 30% - and I'm being conservative.

Document your buyer's journey.



And I don't mean write down some steps on a piece of paper or a word document. I mean map out the steps simply for your whole team to see.

Why is that important?

Because we all stay distracted. The things that are most important to your work should be easily accessible.

...
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Chris Rivers
I agree 1,000,000%, Jake! There's just something special & clarifying about visually seeing the buyer's journey mapped out and "in living color". I've often found that it highlights glaring blindspots, which NEED to be addressed, that otherwise weren't seen.
There is a technique used in
  • powerlifting
  • yoga
  • pain management

...and a host of other places where we need full focus.

It goes like this.

Let's pretend I am doing a heavy repetition of a weight-lifting exercise like a squat. It requires that I coordinate my body and focus on taking LOTS of weight as close to the floor as possible and back up.


At this moment you need to be fully present and concentrate on your form. This allows you to bring...
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Chris Rivers
Jake, you've hit the nail squarely on the head! When I reflect back on the projects and initiatives where we've crushed our KPI's, it's ALWAYS directly correlated to our team's ability to be fully present and focused on the ONE THING we've designated as a priority task in the time period assigned.
In his book, No Excuse Leadership, Brace Barber stated:

You are capable of so much more. It is imperative that each of us discovers that we are capable of achieving more. Our perception of difficult comes as a result of our frame of reference. The current struggle is put into perspective compared to all the other struggles of our lives.


What does that mean?


Each of us has been thru “something.” Sports, war, work projects, parenting,...
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Chris Rivers
John...absolutely love this! It's so easy to look at the countless reasons why a new marketing initiative/partnership/strategy/opportunity won't work, but embracing a "can-do" mindset from the outset has preceded every personal success I've had the opportunity to see or experience in real time.
If the Big 5 topics were people, this is the question that the cost and price topics would be asking your business.

Businesses love the idea of the Big 5.

They want all the amazing benefits that the Big 5 promises.....

Our buyers have more power than ever when it comes to the way that they research and purchase products and services.

They have come to EXPECT companies to provide them with the information they need in order to make an informed...
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Chris Rivers
Great question Hannah…as the father of two teenage boys I find that I consistently have the “cost and price of things” convo. 
 
One of the things I’ve noticed is that our convos inevitably turn into transparent conversations about family “revenue, profits & expenses” lol. 
 
In other words, the talks become “financially intimate”. 
 
Conversely, I find that many business owners/marketing leaders experience discomfort at being so open and transparent about their pricing and costs because it also requires candid transparency and financial/revenue "intimacy". 
 
One possible solution to help navigate those feeling is to view Big 5 content/video’s around price & costs with the same intentions or transparency as writing an direct email about price & cost to their best customer/client. 
 
I’ve found that this mindset shift can go a long way in navigating those mixed feelings around revealing price & costs.