The Enlightened Customer Success Manager Koan = A paradox used in Zen Buddhism, usually a short statement or story that causes the hearer to take pause in order to develop enlightenment. CSM Koan= Assurances made by customer success managers reduce customer satisfaction. Has this given you pause? Let me explain. As I review CSM call recordings, there are CSM’s who make frequent assurances, such as: … Read more
Money and Power: How to Get to the Decision Maker I have discussed previously why co-building the business case is important in its own right. In addition, it opens the door to power. Power = person who makes the financial decision and controls the purse strings. Junior and/or technical people are often uncomfortable or unable to talk about money. You can use this to your … Read more
Sales Lessons from a Heisman Winner In his Heisman acceptance speech Caleb Williams said, “Don’t get bored with consistency.” His insight is valuable for sales performance. Most people tell me that it is not possible to have your questions for a sales call prepared in advance. While it’s true that no plan survives first contact with reality, it is not true that you should improvise … Read more
You Can’t Win a Conversation High pressure selling and arguing with a buyer’s objections will push them in the opposite direction and eliminate trust. Avoid whack-a-mole objection handling. Whacked buyers may stop voicing their concerns. That doesn’t mean the concern is resolved. Instead, stay left by validating their concerns and work to understand the reasoning behind the objections. When the buyer feels heard, you can … Read more
A Lesson from a Sales Split Test: We Benefit from More Structure than We Like The Accidental Sales Split Test I started a call recording and coaching program with a client who had two sales teams. After the initial training, one of the team leaders created a checklist for a discovery call and required her team to check the boxes as they made their calls. … Read more
Staying to the Left of the Sales Pendulum If you’re desperate to make something happen, and you try to control events and people, you push away the people you want to influence and you prevent the desired outcome. I’ve written about the Paradoxical Intent and anti-suggestions before, explaining if you try to “tie-down” a buyer, you will not gain agreement. You will create resistance. A … Read more
Re-Diagnose Need or Not? In my tip, Sales Up in a Down Economy?, I talked about how salespeople can win deals by demonstrating to the buyer that their new purchase will be put to good use. While you may not think managing the implementation is part of your job as a salesperson, it’s worth your while to stay involved. By helping Customer Success understand what … Read more
Sales Up in a Down Economy? The Bad News I never want to be a source of negative thinking, but there is reason to believe that a global recession of some magnitude is underway. Buyers in 2022 are already hesitant about expenditures and many will cut back. The Good News I have experienced ten recessions and they are an opportunity to keep the growth flywheel … Read more
The Winning Edge is Often Subjective Success depends, not just on checking off the technical aspects, but understanding the subjective and emotional criteria. In many competitive scenarios, all of the vendors can check all of the technical boxes. The winning edge is a deeper understanding of the subjective and emotional criteria. Seek to understand the functional requirements. But don’t stop where most salespeople stop. Understand … Read more
Which wins in an A/B test? Pitch Deck vs. Diagnostic Deck A buyer needs to understand your offering, so you should walk them through the Corporate Pitch deck in your first meeting, right? Here are seven observations from call recordings that compare these two approaches: Discovery calls that employ a Corporate Pitch Deck Discovery calls that use my Diagnostic Deck Since you may suspect that … Read more