Welcome back to another Sales Training series!
These posts are intended to give you insight into what it’s like to train with me while providing actionable tips you can use in your day to day.
Note: I intentionally keep the descriptions of the clients vague for privacy reasons.
Insight #1: Choose your words carefully
I advise nearly all of my clients to start their calls by asking:
🐲: What are you hoping to see or hear on this call today?
This question is designed to begin qualifying the prospect on their Buying Criteria.
One of my clients told me he’s been following the new frameworks I gave him but is still struggling.
So I told him let’s review the call.
*start of the call*
🤡: So what are you hoping to get out of today’s meeting?
I paused the call.
“You didn’t ask the question I told you to”
“But I did”
“No you didn’t. Listen again”
I replayed the recording.
🤡: So what are you hoping to get out of today’s meeting?
I paused the call again.
“And now what’s the question that’s written in your script?”
🐲: What are you hoping to see or hear on this call today?
Do you see the difference?
Do you see why there’s a difference?
He did.
Do you?
Part 2
Buyer says:
“We want to figure out how you guys can help”
vs
“We want to figure out if you guys can help”
Can you spot why there is a difference between the two?
There’s 2 levels for the buyers decision making.
Level 1: If = yes/no if you can help. This answer is absolute.
Level 2: How = process / degree to which you can help
So if I hear a buyer say:
“We want to figure out how you guys can help”
I know this buyer is likely to have already decided my category of solution or even product/service is the right one for them and now it’s just a matter of aligning process.
If I hear a buyer say:
“We want to figure out if you guys can help”
I know this buyer still needs to be convinced.
Note: This convincing will be done through the questions I ask, not the answers I give, so they can convince themselves.
Insight #2: Timelines vs Priorities
Salespeople love to ask their buyers about timelines when instead they should be asking about priorities.
They do this because of assumptions and lack of experience.
They assume it’s a priority for the buyer because they are only asking about timelines and not priorities.
And then they actually believe the prospects answer lol!
Write this on a post-it note and put in front of you when talking to buyers:
Priorities dictate Timelines.
Not the other way around.
This is especially and painfully true in Enterprise Sales.
Priorities / Company initiatives take priority over everything else.
See what I did there?
Insight #3: Whose ticking the boxes?
I know how bad you want to impress the buyer with your vast and hard earned knowledge.
This is why you monologue to your buyers.
This is also why I get pissed when we pull up your call and I see:
Talk time
Seller: 77%
Buyer: 23%
But what really happens is the more you talk the more they are scrutinizing you and “ticking the boxes” on their mental checklist.
The more you talk the more likely you are to say something wrong that (silently) kills your deal.
The more the buyer talks the more you get to dust off that old and barely used checklist so you can evaluate if you want them as your next customer!
You know what you do works. You have a successful business based on that fact!
You don’t have to prove that fact to the buyer.
Your solution is the independent variable.
The buyer is the dependent variable. Their situation, problems, and goals need to align with what you can offer. If it doesn’t they aren’t suitable to be your next customer. How can you discover this if you are too busy talking?
It all comes back to assumptions. You are assuming they are a good fit but they haven’t made that decision yet! They decide by talking themselves into it, not by you doing it for them.
Insight #4: Provide validation through the questions you ask
The majority of buyers believe salespeople don’t really listen to them in their conversations.
I agree with this. They don’t listen. They hear what they want to hear.
Giving validation is the easiest way to force yourself to listen and show the buyer they are in fact being heard.
Unfortunately, salespeople providing validation is often either an afterthought or overdone (sucking up to the buyer)
I don’t see many salespeople who are able to validate the buyer from a high status position (that’s the kind of validation everyone craves)
I reviewed a Discovery call recently and had an epiphany:
The less effort it requires on your end to show the buyer validation, the more likely the buyer is to perceive it as sucking up to them.
It’s just too easy and unbelievable to solely validate the prospect by saying / asking things like:
“Sorry to hear”
“Did I get that right?”
We need to be even more subtle and sophisticated in our approach without compromising on the power of validation.
One example would be to wrap the validation in the form of a socratic question:
Prospect: *asks question*
🐲: Out of curiosity, are you asking me this because of what you said earlier about [previous context]?
or
🐲: You’re probably asking because of [previous context] right?
If yes, this stroke of validation + question combo will show them you’ve been listening and keep them talking (a good thing for you!)
If no, they’ll still feel validated (that you’re listening) and either correct you so you can answer the right question.
Win win.
Insight #5: Lead them to the conclusions you want them to make
My client sells a niche service and noticed a gap in his market.
His objective was to get the buyer to discover for themselves that using his service will give them a few key competitive advantages.
One of those advantages would be driving new business from referrals.
Here’s a line of statements/questions I created for him:
🐲: I noticed referrals are a pretty significant source of new businesses in your space..
Prospect: Yeah bla bla
🐲: So how does it work? You guys do a good job with someone, they tell their friends, and then those friends come to you?
Prospect: Yeah pretty much
Note: it can seem redundant to ask what their referral process looks like but it’s important for the buyer to establish context in order for us to proceed creating what I call “Logic Chains”
🐲: And what about the clients you have to turn away and send to [more expensive alternative]? What do you think they tell their friends then?
Prospect: Obviously they’d be disappointed
🐲: Let me ask you a question.. how many opportunities do you think you’ve lost directly or indirectly because you’ve had to send potential clients and their referrals to [more expensive alternative] because you don’t have [solution]?
Prospect: A lot
🐲: Now what do you think they’re going to tell their friends if you didn’t have to send them to [expensive alternative] and that you could give them service and save them money?
Prospect: That they obviously had a good experience
🐲: And what are their friends are likely to do then?
Prospect: Work with us
🐲: Great so what do you wanna do now?
If you want to learn more about the strategies outlined in this post and/or want it customized for what you sell, you can:
1. Train with me (send me a DM if interested)
2. Check out my course
Hey Chad Salesman - dealing with a product who is draaaaging out the decision process between us and a competitor. Asking both of us to jump through a zillion hoops, qualify ourselves to him, etc. Any advice on flipping frame here?