Sales Training Series #1

5 insights from my recent trainings

I’ve been recently sharing more insights from my client trainings on X (FKA Twitter)

There was a lot of positive feedback so I’ll be expanding upon those tweets in long form posts.

Enjoy!

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Insight #1: What / Why / How

Most salespeople never go deep enough in their Discovery calls.

Their Discovery “moves sideways” for an hour.. but rarely forward.

Salespeople rarely uncover the prospects real motive for change. They also rarely ever figure out the critical things that move deals forward like what the real problem is to be solved, the consequences of those problems if left unresolved, and how to measure their solutions value both qualitatively and quantitatively.

One of my clients meets the above description to a T.

Changing this will be a long term process however I had him start with the “basics”

He was to prioritize finding out the “What / Why / How” of the prospects situation before moving onto other qualification criteria..

The What / Why / How

1) What is the problem the prospect is coming to them with? i.e struggling to generate leads

2) Why is that a problem? i.e Why is struggling to generate leads a problem for this prospect and their business? (an answer to this question almost always leads us to discover the Business Problem i.e Declining Revenue)

3) How is the problem impacting the organization and prospect? (every deal needs the emotional and rational component in order to complete the picture)

• Emotional component = how the prospect feels about the problem

• Rational component = how the problem impacts the business

You need both in order to perform at your best.

Finding the What / Why / How is an excellent first step and the quality of his calls immediately improved.

He was “getting straight to it” much faster.

But then another problem came up (as it often does!)

He didn’t build on the answers to the “How” question.

He would ask once but didn’t press for details.

He merely dipped his toes in the pool of Chad, but didn’t jump in.

Which leads us to our second insight:

Insight #2: Define EVERYTHING

🐲: You say revenue is declining due to a lack of leads.. would you be open enough to define what you mean using numbers?

Chad note: I use “Be open enough” to increase the odds of agreement by triggering cognitive dissonance. Nobody likes to think of themselves as “not open”

People buy emotionally and justify intellectually. And in order to accomplish the “justify intellectually” bit there must be an airtight business case (ROI) to working with you.

The expected value of working with you must exceed the cost to work with you by a large margin in order for it to make “business sense” to work with you.

Get to the numbers.

Only then if the numbers are compelling would I then dig in to the root causes of their stated problem (lack of leads)

If one of the root causes happens to be a problem my solution can solve then my chances of winning the deal are higher because I’ll be able to make a sound recommendation for how to solve the problem.

Insight #3: Know which problem the prospect really has

A client told me his problem wasn’t closing enough deals and his client retention wasn’t great.

I was naturally skeptical because I knew the problem the prospect brings is never the real problem to be solved.

I probed a bit and discovered a few interesting points:

1) His demo → close rate is ~20% (not bad.. but not great either)

2) His clients don’t actually need him for the long term and he never explicitly qualifies them on this point. When I asked him why they don’t need him for the long term he told me they have real limitations that prevent them from signing on for longer engagements.

The answer to me was obvious.. he didn’t have a closing problem, he had a targeting problem.

He was selling to the “wrong” buyers.

I advised him to change his ICP and his offer accordingly. I also advised him to challenge the new ICP based on a few key criteria including the “ability and willingness to partner for long term engagement”

This should fix his retention problem.

I also suggested he stick with the status quo regarding how he conducts his sales calls with the new ICP. We can always revisit his closing rates if it remains a problem.

Changing too many things at once can cause cause more harm than good.

All of this was discovered because I didn’t let him self diagnose without challenging and stress testing him and his assumptions.

I don’t know if he will follow my recommendations, but I did my job successfully.

Insight #4: The more granular, the better

A client requested my help for outreach. I asked him to create a PICS chart prior to our meeting.

Upon quick glance I saw the “Problems” he put were simply too vague i.e "stay in sync with business requirements”

A good litmus test for if your problems are too vague:

When the prospect is in the thick of it is this really what they are b*tching about?

Does a prospect really say “Oh man I wish we could stay in sync with our business requirements!”

Or are they more likely to say:

“Why the F&*! do I always need to talk to someone in order to see what’s going on with a project?”

Imagine 2 sales reps cold calling a VP.

Sales rep 1 asks if the VP is struggling to keep in sync with business requirements

and Sales rep 2 asks if the VP has ever wondered why they need to speak with someone in order to see the current state of a project

Which one is more likely to get a positive response?

In sales, the gold is always in the details and “realness” of your message

Insight #5: Never be in a rush

A client has been working on a renewal deal with a current account. Unfortunately this customer outsources their IT decisions to a 3rd party. So my client has to sell to a middle man who will then present recommendations to the current customer for a final decision.

This was a complex deal.

Frame lost in 10 seconds

My client and the 3rd party had a call scheduled to go over the new packages and pricing.

From my client’s (the seller) perspective, this call was important. This was the “presentation” part of his sales process. He needed the 3rd party’s full and undivided attention. Unfortunately, the 3rd party told my client in the first 10 seconds that he had to cut the call short and that he was in a rush.

It sounded like this:

Prospect: We need to move through this as quick as possible because I’ve got another call coming up. Are you okay with that?

Seller: Yeah I mean how much time do you have?

Prospect: as little time as possible to knock this out

Seller: It’s gonna take us about 45 min to get through everything

Prospect: I only have 30 minutes.. *and then begins recapping what has been covered prior and what needs to be covered, basically setting the agenda, in an attempt to save face*

Seller: *goes along with it*

*pause*

A lot to unpack in this short exchange. My notes below in bold:

Prospect: We need to move through this as quick as possible because I’ve got another call coming up. Are you okay with that?

Seller: Yeah I mean how much time do you have?

Prospect: as little time as possible to knock this out

Analysis

• The prospect is using a Time Frame stacked with a Power Frame.

• The prospect assumes the High Status position by commoditizing the seller’s time and deal value. The subtext here is the seller is just another task to deal with because the prospect has more important things to do.

• I understand that people are busy but a high stakes situation with 6 figures on the line is literally the last thing you want to be rushing through

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Seller: It’s gonna take us about 45 min to get through everything

Prospect: I only have 30 minutes.. *and then begins recapping what has been covered prior and what needs to be covered, basically setting the agenda, in an attempt to save face*

Seller: *goes along with it*

Analysis

• A weak attempt by the seller to regain control of the Frame.

• The prospect doubles down on the Time & Power Frame. Another Time Frame used i.e “I only have 30 minutes” and the Power Frame by steamrolling ahead with the agenda assuming it is okay to do so.

• The prospect isn’t in the wrong here because the seller did “agree” to it by asking how much time he has. This is what happens when you are passive and don’t set boundaries.

I advised him next time a prospect does that to assertively set his boundaries.

Prospect: We need to move through this as quick as possible because I’ve got another call coming up. Are you okay with that?

🐲: Actually that’s not going to work as I need the full hour with you. I need your full attention as the stuff we’re going to be covering is important so let’s reschedule

^ a Moral Authority Frame ending with a suggestion to move things forward.

Frame & Status intact.

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If you want to learn more about the strategies outlined in this post and.or want it customized for what you sell, you have 2 options:

1. Train with me (send me a DM if interested)

2. Check out my course