Avoid Sales Obstacles with a Mutual Agenda When you demonstrate that your goal for the conversation is to truly understand their needs, they understand why you are asking questions, and are glad to answer them. The context controls the outcome. A Mutual Agenda results in a better conversation for both parties, because: In any given sales interaction, left to chance, the probability that the buyer’s … Read more
Why Intent Matters People don’t argue with their own ideas. When you hear an indication of need on a discovery call, follow their thought. Two ways to follow their thought are: “Tell me more.” “Is there more I should understand?” Call recordings show both approaches work. But not equally. “Tell me more.” is a command. A command may work in face-to-face selling because people fear … Read more
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
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
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
2 Rules for Selling to a Committee More often than not, large deals mean that you have to sell to a committee, rather than an individual buyer. In these situations, many salespeople fall back to using the corporate deck to present to the group. This is a mistake. Though the corporate pitch deck is designed to cover all bases, it does not account for the … Read more
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
Sales Tools and Tips to Use at Each Point in the Buyer’s Journey Sales Tips to Facilitate the Shift from Latent to Active Need 15 Lead Generation Techniques Self Depreciation Over Social Rapport What to Say if a Sales Call is Not Going Well The Value of Training – The Value of Training Salespeople | Creating useful sales habits Style Matters in Sales This is … Read more