My 3 best sales read of this week
#1 3 criteria to qualify a prospect as a buyer
Problem: They NEED a clear set of problems that are defined. If you can get them to agree with a problem, they didn’t know they had, that’d work too.
If you put forward a problem (however clear it may be) and they don’t acknowledge, rationalize it or believe you, then it won’t matter.
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Impact: For the second criteria, they need to acknowledge that there’s a clear impact if they choose to address those problems.
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And finally, they need to have a willingness to change.
Now, if you’ve got a fuck no for any of these three, you’ve got a prospect and not a buyer.
Elite sellers ask hard questions upfront to make sure they scrutinize these 3 criteria. You don’t have to waste your time going through sales cycles that end up in nothing.
So, once you’ve figured this out, you want to ask yourself the following questions:
Do they acknowledge the problem or are you just trying too hard to pitch it to them?
Do they see the impact or are you just trying too hard to sell it to them?
Do they really have a willingness to change or are you just telling them why they must change?
Source: https://www.slintel.com/blog/sales-messaging/
#2 B/SDRs, you are setting yourself up for rejection...
If you’re answering 2+ product questions on cold calls…
Here’s why:
You’re probably giving TOO MUCH information.
Your main job is to build intrigue and sell the prospect on why they should meet with your AE.
If you answer all of their questions, what’s left for them to learn?
Next time you’re on a call and getting multiple questions, try this:
"You've been asking some great questions but I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I'm the best person to answer them… Would you be opposed to a call with my AE? Guarantee they won't waste your time."
It works for 3 reasons:
You’re keeping the intrigue alive.
You’re using psychology by being vulnerable.
A no-oriented question is more likely to convert.
Give it a try!
#3 Traditional B2B Sales and Marketing Are Becoming Obsolete
Below are stats from a Gartner’s pre-pandemic survey of 750 B2B customer stakeholders involved in complex “solutions” purchases.
Customers spend:
27% of the time they spent independently learning online
18% independent learning offline
22% time building internal consensus
11% time building partner stakeholders consensus
17% of their total buying time interacting directly with supplier sales teams
Now 17% is already a small portion and it gets worse! This 17% represents all suppliers and not each supplier.
So, if a b2b buyer is in touch with 4 vendors, each sales team might be getting 4.2% of a buyer’s total buying time for interaction (both virtual and in-person).
In a world like this, simply “aligning” sales to marketing to ensure a seamless “handoff” as a deal “progresses” along with a linear buying “process” represents a woefully inadequate solution to a radically new buying reality.
What’s the alternative? In the words of Jenna Pipchuk, former head of sales at SMART Technologies, the answer is to “rebuild it from the ground up.”
Source: https://hbr.org/2022/02/traditional-b2b-sales-and-marketing-are-becoming-obsolete
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