Andy Paul's Blog, page 12

726: Winning with Real-Time Proposals, with Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson, Co-Founder & CEO at Sales Right Co., joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Bill Wilson and Sales Right Co. are in Halifax, a growing technology center. Several tech schools and universities are based there. Halifax supports tech and entrepreneurship.
Sales Right Co. is designed to provide transparent pricing for B2B SaaS. Sales Right Co. goes in a sales stack at the ‘late-stage opportunity.’ Sales reps create pricing guides for prospects to visualize options on the vendor website.
The guides allow prospects to run scaling scenarios with multipliers and add-ons so they see what the product will cost for them, now and later, building trust. The Account Exec tracks how the prospect interacts with the guide.
The AE builds a call-to-action into the guide, with links to set up a meeting, get an email, or make a commitment.
Bill founded Sales Right Co. based on his experiences in buying Enterprise SaaS, having to make multiple inquiries to answer his questions, and also based on the proposal process he had used at his earlier company, MindSea.
Andy learned as a young rep to quote early and often. A prospect is not qualified before they have bought into your pricing. People decide first if they will buy before they decide from whom they will buy.
Bill talks about updating options in real-time during prospect conversations. Selling needs to be about making trade-offs with the buyer, not about discounting prices. The more simple the process, the easier the sale.
Bill lets the customer lead the process. If the product doesn’t fit the customer, Bill doesn’t sell them on it. Lay your cards on the table, be transparent, line up what you think will work for them, and have them try out options.
Bill and Andy knock down common excuses vendors use to keep their pricing private. Sales Right Co. pricing guides work well for companies with multi-axis pricing and multipliers. It makes their proposals easily accessible.
Deals are won or lost on price. The presentation of the price makes a tremendous difference. Introduce it early in the discussion of the solution. Clients can’t decide to buy if they don’t know what the product will cost them.
What the buyer wants at the beginning of the process may not be what they want, weeks into the process. Being able to modify the proposal offered in real-time is valuable. Collaboration and transparency lead to trust.
Bill notes that reps hold out hope for a deal for far too long. A quick no is better than a long no.

Membership: TheSalesHouse.com

Andy’s Newsletter: Subscribe

Sales Growth Planner: Order

Follow Andy on:

LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

The post 726: Winning with Real-Time Proposals, with Bill Wilson appeared first on Andy Paul.

Stop waiting for luck

Everyone in sales can use a little luck.

Here’s the secret: you can increase your luck.

A growing body of research has found that to a large extent you can make your own luck.

Luck is largely a product of the choices you make.

Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire, in a large study on luck, found that lucky people are those who make the most of the new opportunities they encounter.

They choose to be open to new experiences and they follow their guts.

“Lucky people just try stuff. It makes intuitive sense: if you lock yourself in your house, how many exciting, new, cool things are going to happen to you? Not many.”

That’s from Erik Barker and his best-selling book Barking Up The Wrong Tree (The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success is (Mostly) Wrong.

Lucky people are also undaunted by failure. They are optimists who are able to see the positives to be learned from a negative situation. If they try and fail, lucky people try again.

Lucky people are unswayed by process or precedent. They step outside the rules to innovate and solve problems. They put themselves in position to succeed.

However, luck is hard work.

It requires that you consistently apply the effort required to put yourself into new situations where you create the opportunity to succeed.

Make the extra call. Proactively build relationships. Look for opportunities to connect with and help other people.

Give more than you take.

What do you do to increase your luck?

Andy

The post Stop waiting for luck appeared first on Andy Paul.

“Everyone was cured except those who died”

Good morning!

It’s another great week in store for everyone. Remember: every new day is another opportunity to succeed.

TSH members: Make sure you sign up to participate Office Hours this week. Wednesday at 5pm ET. Click here to register.

Login details are in your Dashboard.

If you missed last week’s LIVE workshop I presented material on “How to Pre-Negotiate to Win More Deals.” If you’re selling deals with any level of complexity you need to check out that session. It’s a method I’ve successfully used for years to reduce the risk of last-minute complications in closing deals.

[image error]Andy Paul.

725: Knuckle Dragging Sales, with John Crowley

John Crowley, the best-selling author of Knuckle Dragging Sales: A Primitive Process To Make More Money, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

John tells what ‘knuckle dragging sales’ means. You persist and win or you quit and fail. John says bring back the simpler tactics that work. It’s not easy. Sales is the marathon of professions.
Layering processes onto each other leads to train wrecks. Start with the basics of sales. Sales reps are not necessarily being coached on selling skills. The basics must come before the process.
Some organizations are like big machines. The individual rep has little effect on the overall results and just floats with the current.
Has the sales process removed the sense of winning the sale?
Coaching has not been emphasized. Reps should be coached for improvement by their manager, if not by a hired coach. Managers can’t win if their people can’t win. The manager’s job is to make their team better.
As a manager, come up with ways to coach and motivate your sales team. John would encourage reps to develop themselves with books and podcasts, such as Accelerate.
There is not just one way to sell. Corporate sales processes are not the full solution. Each rep needs to be the best version of themselves and use their best process to sell.
The people who succeed are the nonconformists. They don’t work faster or better than others but differently than others.
Andy appears as ‘unsuitable for sales’ on a personality assessment! He tells of an ‘absolute disaster’ salesperson who fit the profile perfectly. What personality type is best suited for transactional selling vs. for consultative selling?
Andy and John discuss moving through sales roles. How is mentoring more than coaching? In most cases, companies are not developing their people.
Andy teaches Managers how to divide their time between Process, Opportunities, People, and Education.
John talks about sales in the healthcare field. Andy’s The Sales House serves a broad mix of industries and fields to help them put the basics over the processes.

 

Membership: TheSalesHouse.com

Andy’s Newsletter: Subscribe

Sales Growth Planner: Order



LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

The post 725: Knuckle Dragging Sales, with John Crowley appeared first on Andy Paul.

Likability is important. Whether you like it or not.

Let’s start the day with a thought provoking quote.

“Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you have not asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go.”

That’s from Clayton Christensen, Harvard Business School professor and best-selling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma.

Perhaps a fitting corollary to that is the famous Wayne Gretzky quote: “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

Take your shot.

“Janet wants to be liked by her buyers”

Sales managers often say “Janet wants to be liked by her buyers” as if that were a bad thing.

Sometimes it is. However, it doesn’t need to be.

Let me explain.

If your motivation to be liked by your buyer is that it gives you the warm fuzzies all over from being validated by another person, then that’s truly problematic.

On the other hand, if you want the buyer to like you because it enables you to connect with them on a human level, activate their interest in your solution, build their trust and inspire them to do business with you, then that’s hugely desirable.

Look, we’re all familiar with the expression that people buy from people they know, like and trust. My experience over many years has shown that is largely true.

Robert Cialdini, in his excellent book Pre-Suasion, takes that even a step further.

He cites research that finds buyers are more likely to purchase from sellers who they think like them.

In short, buyers prefer to buy from sellers:

who they like;
who they feel like them.

That’s a whole lotta liking going on.

Just to be clear: you’re not trying to become besties with buyers.

You want buyers to like you because it helps you to do your job.

And, in sales, you have but one simple job: to help your buyers make a purchase decision. (Preferably to buy from you.)

However, if they don’t like you, then it’s unlikely that they will trust you. And, if you don’t have their trust, then…well, you know.

Along these same lines I’ve been amused, and saddened, recently reading sales bros posture and strut on LinkedIn about not needing to be liked by their buyers. “I just want their respect.”

“Personally, I think John’s an ass. I can’t stand him. But, I respect him. So, I recommend we give him our business,” Said. No. Buyer. Ever.

You need to sell as if 100% of every buyer’s purchase decision will be based on how they experience you.

MEMBER EVENT: Office Hours (9/10)

Don’t forget! Register for next week’s Office Hours in the EVENTS tab of your Member Dashboard.

Think of my weekly office hours like group coaching sessions. I will answer as many of your questions as I can get to. Your question could be a general question about sales. Or it could be about a specific sales opportunity you’re working on. It could even be about your career and what you need to do take the next step. We are here to support you!

[image error]Andy Paul.

724: How Sales should work with Procurement, with Jens Hentschel

Jens Hentschel, Founder and Managing Director of the Fivis Partnership, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Jens is in London. He worries about business issues after Brexit if it occurs. Jens’s company, the Fivis Partnership, helps procurement teams become more customer-centric and strategic, with operational excellence.
The Fivis Partnership also helps sellers understand the procurement side. In the eyes of the procurement team, a deal is a win for both the buyer and the seller. Sellers still tend to see procurement as the enemy.
Sales and procurement need to work together to deliver value to the respective organizations they represent. When they work against each other, it ends in disaster.
Author Mike Weinberg wrote about “the procurement pit.” Jens has seen sales training that teaches reps to avoid procurement at all costs. Jens is frustrated when procurement is seen as a rubber stamp.
Procurement is there to deliver value in the supplies and expense area. Procurement requires skills. Suppliers that try to form an alliance against procurement or outsmart them may find that strategy backfires.
Jens gives an example from his time as a procurement leader. IT wanted him to “sit in” a meeting to approve a multi-year software deal they were ready to sign. As Jens asked questions, the vendor lowered the price by 20%!
In that situation, Jens had not yet worked with IT, and he needed to articulate quickly the value procurement brings to the conversation, so he asked questions. There are more aspects of procurement than getting the best price.
CEOs and CFOs need to drive company sales and contribute to growth. For them, the role of procurement is to get the best supplies and services to support innovation, drive sales, and accomplish growth.
Procurement must first understand the business needs; the needs of the departments, and the things they may want. It takes dialog and well-reasoned questioning.
The second step is to divide those needs and wants into things that can be provided internally and things to be provided by external support. That leads to a sourcing strategy and then to an investigation of suppliers.
There are still misunderstandings that sellers and procurement have about each other. Procurement and suppliers collaborate to serve the end-user. Jens sees transformation and disruption occurring in procurement.
Jens recommends that you make contact now with procurement at your client. Reach out to them through your contact or on LinkedIn. Involve them early, offering solutions that make them shine internally.

The post 724: How Sales should work with Procurement, with Jens Hentschel appeared first on Andy Paul.

723: Sales Enablement and Your Buyer, with Doug Winter

Doug Winter, Founder and CEO at Seismic, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Seismic Sales Enablement provides content to help sellers educate themselves quickly about the buyer and the buyer’s needs and also assembles content that answers the buyer’s questions in the most relevant way.
Sellers today have much less time to perform discovery. If competitors have information the seller doesn’t have, they have a big advantage with that prospect. The sooner, the better, when presenting a value proposition.
Tech is great, but what do we still lack to improve sales win rates? Doug predicts that tech stacks will consolidate with fewer vendors solving more pieces of the puzzle. Do those who adopt tech close more than those who do not?
If you are settling for a 20% win rate, you are training your sellers to lose 80% of the deals. This is often driven by tools that pour unlikely prospects into the top of the funnel. Seismic looks at every step of the funnel.
Seismic focuses on conversion rates in the funnel and looks for places where the sales process could be improved. They suggest changes and then track them for measurable improvements.
Andy would like to see more emphasis put on winning the sale rather than the process of selling. Doug suggests putting less focus on data and more focus on relationships. We sell to people, not personas.
Failure in the discovery/qualification stage is the cause of the loss of the sale, in most cases.
Why is it hard to sell the concept of sales enablement to a CEO? Shouldn’t enablement be the right direction for sales? The business case for Seismic is the quick accessibility of relevant content to the sales rep.
Companies spend money on developing content that goes unused. CRM software reports on account status but does not supply sales content. Marketing supplies content, but rarely gets feedback unless the content fails.
There are three legs of sales enablement: coaching, content, and training. Doug says Seismic is sometimes sold to a sales enablement team, sometimes to marketing, and sometimes to sales operations.
In Seismic’s sales department, sales tech is a high priority. They observe what tech works best for each task, in integration with the Seismic product. Companies are needing to sell more with less cost and enablement helps.
Can you reasonably raise your company’s quota by 10% without raising your sellers’ abilities by 10%? Use the data, but reps need to get better at their jobs, not just have better tech.

The post 723: Sales Enablement and Your Buyer, with Doug Winter appeared first on Andy Paul.

722: Selling on LinkedIn, with Dennis Brown

Dennis Brown, LinkedIn sales consultant and author of The Ultimate Guide to Generating Inbound Leads with LinkedIn, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Selling is not about “fairness.” You don’t get the order if you don’t win the sale. Dennis shares his stand on pricing early in a conversation. “Here is why I’m more expensive.”
You can’t get a pricing objection from a qualified prospect. Qualify your prospects early. Find good prospects and don’t spend time with unqualified prospects whose primary concern is price.
Be proactive and declutter your pipeline. No stakeholder is served by a pipeline full of unqualified prospects.
Dennis talks about two problematic approaches salespeople use on LinkedIn — 1) treating it like a speed-dating app, 2) failing to create valuable content.
Dennis generated over 3,500 inbound leads in 2018 on LinkedIn, from content he created or curated. Video can have a great impact.
Build a network of relationships, not transactions. Share content that’s useful and valuable to the people in your network. They will engage when they find value in it. They will look at your profile to learn more.
As a seller, use LinkedIn as a career asset, not a job asset. Relationships you build will have value for the length of your career. Take the long view. Even if LinkedIn goes away, real relationships can last.
Some people don’t research. One rep reached out to Andy recently and asked if he’d ever thought of doing a podcast; he was selling a podcast opportunity. He didn’t know that Accelerate is a top-rated sales podcast.
Don’t spam LinkedIn accounts. It is a violation of the LinkedIn Terms of Service agreement. LinkedIn is serious about shutting down services that generate spam. Spam reinforces negative sales stereotypes.
Dennis foresees two upcoming trends — 1) LinkedIn Live Video will be a premium feature to build engagement. 2) Content creators will focus on interactively engaging with commenters on their posts.
Always have a content strategy. Keep the long-term view of providing value. 80% of Dennis’s content doesn’t talk about LinkedIn or social selling. He posts valuable, interesting content that is relevant to his target market.
Andy quotes Thomas Huxley — “In life, you should try to learn something about everything and everything about something.”

 

Membership: TheSalesHouse.com

Andy’s Newsletter: Subscribe

Sales Growth Planner: Order



LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

The post 722: Selling on LinkedIn, with Dennis Brown appeared first on Andy Paul.

721: Outbound Ops, with Ben Salzman & Kyle Williams

Ben Salzman and Kyle Williams, Principals at Dogpatch Advisors, join me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Dogpatch is an advisory and research firm developing sales playbooks and processes for outbound sales. They harness the continuing explosion of data into a pipeline to help companies scale faster with higher relevance.
SDRs are not usually experts in operations, persuasion, copywriting, sequencing, time management, and conversion. Dogpatch offers an Outbound Ops system to help. Kyle and Ben explain an overview of the system.
Consolidating data from various sources allows insights rather than just observations. Kyle presents a couple of sales approaches based on sample insights.
Outbound Ops fits a new role. It simulates how a CEO or an experienced AE prepares decision tree before the first call with a specific account. Ben describes how the data is gathered and used to drive the content.
Visual Prospecting is an extension of content generation beyond the text. It is helpful because people process visuals faster than text. Dogpatch can scale this function to provide something of actual value to your prospect.
Dogpatch provides Outbound Ops as an asset for anyone in an organization to use to produce dynamic, relevant content that fits their situation. Ben talks about scaling self-learning plays that ‘tune’ themselves with repetition.
Some prospecting tactics can create a disconnect from the prospect in the funnel. The top of the funnel doesn’t help the close rate. ‘Bad results, fast’ are not ‘good results.’ Ben explains interactive discovery whiteboarding.
Ben talks about sales ‘experts’ who have skipped the step of having actual experience in complex enterprise sales. You can’t gain insights without the experiences of facing customers and closing deals. Andy shares some ‘filters.’
You can’t ‘templatize’ face-to-face interactions between a unique salesperson and a unique contact.
Andy writes a daily sales email, which he creates from his list of 900 potential topics he keeps on Evernote. Be curious daily to avoid the Dunning-Kruger effect. Andy finds something new online every day.
ABM and ABS have been around for years for big accounts. But some companies use the tools more for the sake of automation than for authenticity. If you optimize a process to achieve a target, the optimization limits you.
True productivity counts dollars generated per sales hour. Selling skills are still mysteries to some salespeople. Don’t demonize ‘good’ in relation to ‘excellent’; good salespeople are consistent.

Membership: TheSalesHouse.com

Andy’s Newsletter: Subscribe

Sales Growth Planner: Order



LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

The post 721: Outbound Ops, with Ben Salzman & Kyle Williams appeared first on Andy Paul.

720: Focus Marketing and Selling on the Buyer, with Wayne Cerullo

Wayne Cerullo, Chief Prospect Officer at B2P Partners, joins me on this episode of #Accelerate!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

B2P Partners helps marketers and salespeople be more focused on the people who are their prospects. 
Sellers have two data issues: 1. The data overwhelms us. 2. We focus on the pipes instead of on the prospects in them.
According to MacTech’s Scott Brinker, there are 7,040 MarTech companies. Wayne believes MarTech distracts from the marketing work we really need to do.
Marketing and sales are turning into ‘program management.’ The danger is that focusing on data diverts focus from the prospects we are trying to help.
Instead of their experience, people depend on numbers. Wayne discusses the limitations of quantitative data. What is the real meaning of the data?
What does the buyer want? They want the problem they’re trying to solve to go away. Buying something is the least attractive option for solving their problem.
Wayne proposes that the role of sellers is not just for the buyer to buy their technology but also to change the way buying teams do business in their company. Buying is a public decision made with their colleagues.
The buyer’s progress through their buying process is not linear. We don’t yet know how to use data to help the buyer in the buying process.
No-decision accounts never got to the point of deciding to buy. That decision needs to be made early. B2P Partners probes into when the decision to fix an issue was reached by the prospect. It takes a lot of engagements to find out.
Your product is not a good fit for everyone. Don’t waste time handling objections if you should be finding a better prospect. Understand the experience your customer is having, their needs, and their buying process.
Sales messages and marketing messages need to be aligned. Wayne explains how alignment can serve the prospect better. Andy would like to see marketing and sales using the same messaging, with sales going deeper.
There is a lack of consistency in the handoff from marketing to sales. The sales playbook needs to have the best practices of sellers combined with insights from buyers on how they expect the process to work.
Gartner research points out that the buyer doesn’t have a fixed buying process and they sometimes need to be educated on how to buy what they need.

Membership: TheSalesHouse.com

Andy’s Newsletter: Subscribe

Sales Growth Planner: Order



LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

The post 720: Focus Marketing and Selling on the Buyer, with Wayne Cerullo appeared first on Andy Paul.