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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Mahan Khalsa
Started reading
April 15, 2019
Hypothetically walk into the future, give them success, and ask: “Then what happens?”
tip- if the client wants more information, ask them what they want, why they want it and once they get it, what happens after that to really confirm a decision.
get more returns and fewer satisfied customers. And our business is about satisfied customers.” By the time he finished his rant, one he had seemingly given many times before, Mahan and he both started to smile at the obvious analogy to computer systems.
tip - if a client asks for experience, you can ask the client on how they were able to sell on niche markets without experience and use that to answer their question.
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: title of a book by Annette Simmons
tip - this is a book on story telling.
criteria you cannot meet: 1. Change the relative importance of the criterion. 2. Show that no one can meet the criterion. 3. Change how the person thinks about the criterion.
tip - on an objection we cannot meet, change the relative importance of the objection, show that no one can meet it or change the criteria to see what can that x give them and see if you can do it in an alternative way
them X, can you give them what X equals to them? Failing that, can you show them examples of cases where getting X will not give them what they want?
tip - if the client wants x which can be experience or anything, see what x equals to them and see if you can give them the equal without x. like if x years of experience means get done quicker, we can ay what if the same candidate can get the job done quicker as well.
and improve logic. Use analogies, metaphors, stories. Reframe perceptions. Change the relative importance of a criterion. Show that no one can meet the criterion. Change the client’s underlying beliefs about the criterion.
tip- to resolve yellow lights, reframe perceptions, tone down the relative importance of a criteria and change the belief.
be clear about what would constitute “no deal.” “No deal” is the price below which we would rather walk away than accept the business; we have better alternatives available. Two grievous errors in negotiation are failing to reach agreement above the no-deal point and accepting business below the no-deal point. If we have not articulated our no-deal point, we are not ready to negotiate.
tip in price negotiation, i should have a no deal price which would make walk away from the deal.
General rule: only deal with price if price is the last issue on the table. To find out if it is the last issue, take price off the table and see what happens. If nothing happens, there is something important missing. Find
tip- to negotiate on price, make an argument which says if price is off the table, is there anything else which needs to be resolved and make sure that it is resolved.
possibilities: • We do not have to write a proposal and can pass on our cost savings to the client. • The client provides marketing and advertising value. • The client provides R&D collaboration; perhaps his company helps measure the effectiveness of the solution and we can write up the results in a white paper. • The client signs up additional business now and we write down our associated business development costs. • The client pays early and we reduce our accounts receivable costs.
tip- on price negotiation, if we have to pull down price, ask the client for advertising, get results on solutions for a white paper and ask to pay early to cut down account receivable expense.
I’m glad to hear that. If we can sign up some of that business now, I can reduce
tip - if the client says we will give more business, then you can ask for what can they commit now in advance so that we can pass on the selling costs to you now.
That’s reasonable and I’m confident we will do a good job. We can leave the price where it is and agree in advance that if you sign up more business without any additional selling costs on our part, we’ll give you the discount on the future business.
tip - if the client says we need to test you first, i will say i can keep the price and give you a discount on the future business , i can pass on the selling costs to the future business.
certainly hope so. That is how we priced our solution. If that doesn’t happen, it could be a bad miscalculation. Can we talk a bit about what you would be willing to do in that regard?
tip - if the client says if we win our business, it will build industrial reputation, we should ask for marketing white paper or reference.
and politically, our price was based on bringing our “A” team. If they were willing to compromise on the quality of people, we could lower the price. They replied they wanted the “A” team. We responded, “That is the price it takes to get those people on board.” They agreed to move
to get a discount, ask the client if they would comprise on the a team or b team, they would agree
getting a referral to the CEO or CFO • Prestige of their name as a reference • Fit of our solution to the client’s situation • Potential economic return
Tip - To identify a prospect, use the prestige of the name of the prospect, potential revenue and fit of our solution to the client as a basis to identify the prospect.
Context: What issues and trends are affecting the client’s industry? What are the clients key strategies and initiatives that affect everything it does? Issues: What business problems or results does the client have that are addressed by our solution? Evidence: What data and/or opinions suggest something needs to change? Impact: What are the probable financial and intangible consequences of the issues? Constraints: What has stopped or might stop the client from addressing the issues?
tip- when you research industry or companies, always look at 4 categories namely context( trends), issues(problems), evidence( data evidence) , impact( financial and intangible consequences) and constraints(WHAT PREVENTS THEM FROM ACT ON)
should sound familiar. We are qualifying our own solution, looking at issues, evidence, impact, constraints, and context.
Tip- to identify an industry, look at context, issues, evidence, impact and constraints which would impact the problem.
example for these steps might look like the accompanying table.
tip- to identify an opportunity, i should use the 3 checklist items, problems, evidence of the problem and the result or impact of the problem.
be able to talk about our solution in terms of the problems it solves and the results it produces, rather than its features and benefits. We
tip- on new client meetings, always talk about problems it solves and results it creates.
stage of the sales cycle we are not trying to sell anything! We simply want to decide if spending time discussing a potential business opportunity makes sense—
Tip for meetings - for meeting, always think about end in mind which is decision, next step, implementation. For that to happen, what would be the key beliefs needed for the client and what actions can i submit to propose key beliefs.
we were only able to talk about one, two, or three key issues (around the topic of interest) that would make this a good use of your time, what would you like to make sure we cover?”
tip for first meeting- on the first meeting, the question to the client is what are the top 3 issues which you want to talk about or 3 business challenges you have or 3 opportunities which you face in the 2 to 3 years?
have sales volume issues—they aren’t getting the growth that is needed and expected. 2. They have salesperson productivity issues—there are key performance measures that need to improve. 3. They have sales information issues—there is key customer information that is not available or takes too long to get and it is hurting revenue per customer.
tip - general crm issues are sales volume issue which is the sales they are not getting, sales productivity issues and sales information issues where they spend too much time getting the information.
What assets if any do you suspect are problematic? b. How would you size the potential—assuming it could be captured? c. What might prevent the company from trying a new approach?
tip for first meeting- on every issue, what evidence do you see that the issue exists, what is the impact or size of the issue and what would prevent you from solving the issue.
have tried to address this ourselves and concluded that it would cost more to solve the problem than the size of the problem itself. How could you do it if we couldn’t? b. Where have you done this successfully before?
tip - question from the client. how would you approach the problem if we had not solved it and where have you done this before?
calls are more successful when the client does most of the talking. Yet when the client asks questions, most consultants answer with in-depth responses. The client follows up with more questions, the consultant responds, and by the end of the meeting time the client has talked little.
tip on first meeting- always have the client talk more and have redirect questions.
In the interest of continuous improvement, is there anything that your current partner doesn’t do, or do well, that might be worth exploring? No is an okay answer.”
tip- objection question. if the client has a partner, ask the question is there any area your current partner does not do and or not doing well in the interest of improvement. No is an okay answer.
person she knows inside her company. 44 percent if referred by a person she knows outside her company. 44 percent if you connect with her outside of her office, such as at a conference or social gathering.
Tip always use referrals to talk to new clients rather than cold calls
Personalized our approach by gaining a referral to the key stakeholder. 4. Practiced our Meeting Plan as a team well in advance of our call and meeting. 5. Pre-positioned our agenda prior to the meeting, so that the time we spent together was well used.
tip - identify the right prospect, have a meeting plan with end in mind, preposition the agenda and get agreement on it.
bring you excellent choices that would truly drive your success—whether you end up choosing us or not. • My intent is to find out whether or not
tip - my intent is to help you to maximize your technology investment by proactively providing insights, make better decisions, prevent problems.
