Don’t Believe Your Own Marketing (Too Much)

Don’t Believe Your Own Marketing (Too Much)

Don’t Believe Your Own Marketing (Too Much) Sophisticated product marketing teams provide personas and typical pain points as a starting point for sales conversations. They also love to arm sales teams with case studies. On call recordings, I hear salespeople telling customers about the typical pain points and referencing the case studies. As counter-culture as this may sound, the customer’s reaction is typically, “That’s not … Read more

Why asking “I am curious” is disingenuous

Why asking “I am curious” is disingenuous

Why asking “I am curious” is disingenuous I’ve talked before about the need for salespeople to be curious, so it may come as a surprise when I tell you not to say you’re curious. To be curious is a mind set. To say, “By the way, I’m curious,” is another thing entirely that can feel disingenuous because the question is hiding a deeper motivation, and … Read more

The Purpose of Questions

The Purpose of Questions

The Purpose of Questions When you’re on a sales call, you should have a purpose.  That purpose helps to focus your questions and guide the call, to ultimately bring about a solution.  If you went to engineering school, like I did, you were taught that asking the right questions will bring you 80% of the way to a solution.  You cannot jump to a solution, … Read more

Sales: A Scientific Method

Sales: A Scientific Method

Sales: A Scientific Method Most people would argue that sales is an art, not a science. I don’t disagree, but I do believe you can apply the scientific method to the sales process. For those of you who’ve been out of school for a while, here’s a refresher on the steps: Ask a question Do background research Construct a hypothesis Test with an experiment Analyze … Read more

The Surprising Power of Questions - Cricket player

The Surprising Power of Questions

The Surprising Power of Questions “Top-performing salespeople ask questions differently…” This is a quote from The Surprising Power of Questions by Alison Wood Brooks and Leslie John, Harvard Business Review May-June 2018. The quote is based on analysis of call recordings by Gong, a tech company that provides a sales call recording and analysis tool. The article is packed with research by various groups on … Read more