Sales Training Series #13

Insights from recent trainings

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 my clients vague for privacy reasons.

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Here’s what we’re covering today:

- Example of how to find a problem to sell to

- An example of taking Disqualifying too literal

- One question that could've saved a seller 7 minutes in Discovery

- The one question salespeople ask in the beginning of their meetings that put them in the Low Status position and what to ask instead

- Ditch the "on a scale of 1-10" questions and examples of what questions to replace it with

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Details make or break your Deal

Most salespeople aren’t listening when a prospect is talking.

They’re so busy thinking of what to say next that they miss subtle & valuable details.

This happens because of high adrenaline which makes it impossible to truly listen and be curious.

And that adrenaline stems from performance anxiety.

Performance anxiety is the pressure that we, and management, puts on ourselves to sell our product/service and be a “closer”

The problem with this approach is many, including that it gives all the leverage to the prospect.

If my primary goal was to sell product then I’m reliant on the prospect to buy that product.

Where’s my power? There is none. It’s all up to the prospect.

But what if my goal was to see if the prospect was a good fit for my product/service?

Then I wouldn’t be as stressed. And I wouldn’t be “selling”

I’d be Disqualifying.

I know the stress of having to sell your product is real and it doesn’t make it any easier when management is on your back constantly asking you daily “What’s cooking?”

But when that Zoom meeting is about to begin you have to find ways to calm your nerves and become present or else you’ll miss important details that will help you close more deals.

Take the case of a recent call review. Here’s how the exchange went down:

Prospect: Our target is $3M this quarter

Seller: And are you on track to hit your goals?

Prospect: Yeah I don’t see why we wouldn’t

Seller: And you’re confident you’ll be able to keep that pace for the remainder of the year?

Prospect: Yes we *begins explaining their sales strategy and processes to hit the goals*

Seller: Ok well what if we could help improve XYZ to really make sure you hit those numbers? It’s not a complicated fix and I think we can really add value there

Prospect: Hmm I appreciate it, but I don’t think we need any help there. We have ABC in place already and are pretty much covered

Seller: But there’s always room for improvement right?

Prospect: Not worth the hassle of adding any new tools honestly

Frame Lost.

What could the seller have done instead?

The prospect said their target is $3M this quarter.

What could they have challenged here?

Think about it before continuing.

After reviewing this call it was obvious what the seller missed.