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Replay: Do Sales People REALLY Need ALL That SOFTWARE?! | Salesman Podcast Aug 26, 2022

Show notes

Chris Smith is a sales and marketing expert, USA Today bestselling author and co-founder of Curaytor.

On this episode of the Salesman Podcast Chris shares how software and what tools modern, internet based B2B sales professionals really need to close business in their marketplaces.

Resources:

Curaytor.com
Book:
Chris on Linkedin
@Chris_Smth
Book: The Conversion Code: Capture Internet Leads, Create Quality Appointments, Close More Sales

The post Do Sales People REALLY Need ALL That SOFTWARE?! appeared first on Salesman.com.

**Close Sales Faster By Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey | Selling Made Simple** Aug 25, 2022
Show notes

Most people think the best sales reps are selfish, that they only think about closing a deal from THEIR side, not the buyer’s. They’re focused on the sales funnel, not the buying process.

But it turns out the most successful reps put 90% of their energy into understanding WHY buyers make a purchase. They focus on what’s known as the buyer’s journey. Because doing so makes nurturing a deal and closing 10X easier.

And guess what, you can do the same too.

**What Is the Buyer’s Journey?**

Basically, the buyer’s journey is how your buyers go from being unaware of their problem to deciding to purchase your solution.

Most sales professionals break the journey down into five stages:

1. **No Awareness**

No Awareness where the buyer doesn’t even understand they have a problem.

2. **Awareness**

Awareness where they’ve acknowledged the problem exists and are seeking more information about it.

3. **Exploring Solutions**

Exploring Solutions where the buyer is trying to find the right product to solve their problem.

4. **Comparing Vendors**

Comparing Vendors where they are weighing the pros and cons of different solutions.

5. **Purchase Decision**

And Purchase Decision where, you guessed it… they decide to purchase a particular solution.

Now, as they move through these five stages, they’ll interact with touch points that push them forward to the next stage. Touch points could be content like articles, case studies, and testimonials, but they’ll also be initial conversations with sales reps, demos, and sales calls.

**How Has the Buyer’s Journey Changed?**

How the buyer’s journey has changed recently.

Here’s what the old buyer’s journey looked like:

About 40% of the journey was covered by content the buyer would consume on their own. After that, sales would get involved and help guide the buyer through the remaining 60%.

But these days, the buyer’s journey looks more like this:

Nowadays sales reps are typically only involved in the final 20% of the journey—a *huge* change from the model of the past. This model has only gotten even more hands-off since the rise of COVID.

In fact, a study from McKinsey found that 70-80% of B2B decisionmakers now prefer remote or digital self-service models vs. traditional models.

This shift spells out three distinct changes for sales professionals like you:

**1. The Sales Cycle Is Longer Than Ever**

The sales cycle is longer than ever, which means more in-depth sales cadences and customer lifetime value are incredibly important.

**2. Content Needs to Be More Strategic**

Two, content needs to be more strategic. B2B buyers now consume **at least 13 pieces of content** before making a buying decision. As a result, your content needs to be specifically tailored for the buyer’s journey stage they’re currently in (more on that in just a bit).

**3. “Education First, Salesmanship Second”**

And finally, you need to adopt an “education first, salesmanship second” mindset to be successful in this new world of sales. Longer relationships, a complicated journey, and fewer sales rep touch points mean buyers will focus more on the value you provide, not the charm you exude.

**Mapping Your Buyer’s Journey**

Now, the question is how can you change up your buyer’s journey to create a sales cycle tailored to this new reality?

This is where the Buyer’s Journey Framework from the Selling Made Simple Academy comes in.

The first step is to understand how your own customers are actually moving through the buyer’s journey. And that takes plotting out five factors.

1. **Which Step Do You Meet Them?**

Which step do you meet them?

If it’s earlier in the cycle, you may want to consider shifting your personal touch points to later in the journey. Rather than having a sales conversation with prospects in the No Awareness stage, better to leave things to a well-crafted piece of educational content.

Now it’s worth mentioning that every industry will be different. So don’t be afraid to experiment with different methods in yours. But the key is to not rely on old models where you may close a deal during your first conversation.

Instead, know when to step back and let the buyer take the lead.

2. **Where Have They Been?**

Factor number two is knowing where the prospect has been.

Which stages have they been through already? What kind of content are they consuming on a regular basis? Where are you seeing the most engagement?

A robust CRM is golden here so be sure to equip yourself with tools like HubSpot as soon as possible.

3. **What Pain Are They In?**

Next up, what pain are they in?

There are usually specific pain points for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Knowing which pain points match up with which is essential for delivering the right messaging.

Here are some examples of possible pain points for each stage.

No Awareness

I know my business can be run more efficiently, but I don’t know how.

Awareness

There is a gap in our processes that I need to understand better.

Exploring Solutions

We don’t know which solution types will solve our problem.

Comparing Vendors

Which product offers the features we need to make this a successful solution?

Purchase Decision

I’m concerned this isn’t the right decision and needs reinforcement.

4. **What Is Their Next Step?**

The fourth factor you need to consider is what is the buyer’s next step?

In the best-case scenario, the next step is going to be the next step in the buyer’s journey, like moving from No Awareness to Awareness.

With that next step in mind, you can then move on to…

5. **How Do You Get Them to the Next Stage?**

How do you get buyers to the next stage?

For most stages, it’s going to be valuable content that does the trick. Use the individual pain points you picked out when deciding what pain the prospect was in during step number three. From there, generate educational content that addresses those pain points.

Now in general you’ll want to keep content for earlier stages more simple. Blogs, social media posts, that kind of thing. And for later stages you can get more in the weeds with product spec guides, whitepapers, and case studies.

What’s important here is that you’re meeting prospects where they are and ushering them to the next stage. Skip the salesmanship. And focus on education instead.

**Summary**

Not taking the buyer-focused approach isn’t just wrong in principle (after all, your job is to be a problem solver, not a shyster). But it also makes qualifying, nurturing, and closing prospects 10X easier.

The post Close Sales Faster By Understanding Your Buyer’s Journey appeared first on Salesman.com.

**Proven 4-Step Cold Email Framework (Any Industry) | Selling Made Simple** Aug 23, 2022
Show notes

Let’s face it—most cold emails suck. Cheesy openers, misleading subject lines, body copy that drawls *on and on.* It’s no wonder why the response rate for them is often less than 2%.

But the most frustrating thing about it is cold emails don’t HAVE to suck! Because there’s a simple, 4-step structure you can follow to make **any** email stand out in **any** industry for **any** customer…

Today we’re hitting on a subject that should be near and dear to any sales professional, cold email.

We’ll be covering one of my favorite Selling Made Simple Academy processes, The Strategic Cold Email Framework. It’s made up of just 4 short steps:

Get Attention

Demonstrate the Need

Earn Their Trust

Call to Action

Now, I love this framework because it’s just so versatile. You can apply it to any industry, from textiles and candy bars to professional services, luxury goods, and enterprise-level software.

And like I said, it comes directly from the Selling Made Simple Academy. We won’t be able to cover it as in-depth here, of course. But it’ll be a great overview so you can at least get some actionable strategies you can start using today.

And at the end, we’ll put it all together and share a template you can start using today.

**1) Get Attention**

In the increasingly busy and crowded world of email, if you can’t stand out from the rest **right off the bat**, your cold email is going straight to the trash. Buyers won’t even bother opening them.

So, which subject lines get opened rather than sent to junk?

A. Direct Subject Lines

Direct subject lines like “The world’s fastest CRM tool – 20% off today”

B. News Subject Lines

News subject lines like “Law [X] has moved on. Has your insurance followed?”

C. How-to Subject Lines

How-to subject lines like “How to reduce your advertising spend in 14 days”

D. Question Subject Lines

And question subject lines like “Is [X] costing you more to operate than it should?”

**2) Demonstrate the Need**

Once you’ve got their attention, it’s time to demonstrate the need.

What can you offer? And why should they devote their time to listening to you?

One of the best ways to do this is by using the reality gap method. This method involves three steps.

A. **Current Reality**

Outline their current reality, typically by highlighting a problem they’re dealing with today. Next…

B. **Desired Future Reality**

Show their desired future reality once that problem is solved. And last…

C. **Reality Bridge**

Build the reality bridge by providing the steps they need to take to get them from where they are now to where they could be—i.e., use the solution YOU are offering.

Here’s what that might look like in practice:

*Hi [NAME],*

*I recently worked with [NAME], he is in the [INDUSTRY] like you.*

*Traditional salespeople had failed [NAME]. Here is his story – [LINK TO INSIGHT POST]*

*He went from zero motivation,to proactively racing to get to his desk each morning to prospect.*

*All by implementing proven frameworks* *to relieve the pressure of choice from his job.*

*Does it make sense to jump on a quick call to see if you can use these frameworks too?*

*Cheers,*

*Will*

**3) Earn Their Trust**

Earning the buyer’s trust.

Social proof is the name of the game here.

What kinds of success stories have you had with past clients? What amazing ROI did you achieve that lines up with what you can offer this prospect?

Try to include social proof directly in the body copy. For instance, when building out a reality gap, use quantitative results from people in similar companies, preferably ones the prospect will recognize.

But if you **really** want to see your open and clickthrough rates explode, use a referral.

A referral is without a doubt the most effective piece of social proof in your arsenal. So if you have a colleague in common, be sure to leverage their name right in the subject line.

Another trick you can use is to include links to testimonials in your email signature. It’s an easy way to point prospects to even more social proof without seeming overtly spammy.

**4) Call to Action**

And the final step of the Strategic Cold Email Framework is the call to action.

At the end of the email, just ask this:

“Does it make sense to jump on a quick call to… [achieve a result]?”

Simple.

Don’t mix up your messaging by having multiple CTAs. Don’t overcomplicate things with a lot of fluff. Just ask the question. Bam.

Pulling It All Together

Now, what does this look like when we put it all together?

Well here’s the cold email template I mentioned earlier that has all four elements in one winning email.

***Subject:*** *Referral from [NAME] at [COMPANY]: Should we connect?*

***Message:***

*Hi [NAME],*

*I was chatting with [NAME] last week, and he said [INDUSTRY] is tough at the moment.*

*I told him that we help [INDUSTRY] salespeople close more sales in just 28 days, guaranteed! He was a little shocked…*

*That is a bold statement, right?*

*Well, we have helped [RELEVANT COMPANY] increase their sales by X% in the past few months. [NAME] their sales manager is dancing on tables right now.*

*Does it make sense to jump on a quick call to see if we can increase your sales too?*

*Thanks,*

*Will*

See how we’re leveraging social proof right in the subject line and first sentence? Then we’re moving on to demonstrating the need and giving proof. And finally we’re wrapping up with a clear, straight-to-the-point CTA.

This is the exact template I use with my cold outreach. And if you use it for yours, I guarantee you’re going to see some pretty spectacular results.

And the coolest thing is that is isn’t just the Salesman.org team using this cold email framework, there are literally thousands of ofther sales professionals using it too.

Here you can see the Selling Made Simple Academy community and there are thousands of examples of people sharing their emails, getting feedback and getting success from them too.

If you’d like to find and close more deals in the next 30 days or your money back, click the link below to book a call with one of our team and we’ll see if you’re a good fit for our program.

The post Proven 4-Step Cold Email Framework (Any Industry) appeared first on Salesman.com.

Sales Territory Management 101: A Sales Rep's Complete Guide | Salesman Podcast Aug 22, 2022

Show notes

Many businesses organize their sales teams into territories based on geography, demographics, or other criteria. Your company has also decided to jump on the sales territory management bandwagon to ensure better outcomes.

But how can you ensure you continue hitting your monthly sales quota under this new arrangement?

Your experience and your prospect's willingness to buy your product affect your success, but one thing is sure you cannot simply… wing your sales territory management.

You need a territory management plan—a solid one at that.

This Salesman.org guide will lay out the basics of sales territory management and help ensure you direct your time and energy on activities that have the most impact.

What Is Territory Management?

A sales territory is a customer group or geographic area over which either an individual sales reps or a sales team has responsibility.

Each territory is defined based on specific factors, such as its history, geography, or sales potential—sometimes a combination of these factors. The ultimate aim of managing sales territories this way is to maximize sales and profits while efficiently allocating resources.

Sales territories have to be balanced. Otherwise, bad things can happen to performance:

If your territory is being under-serviced, you and your team can spread too thinly, resulting in inadequate activity levels. As a result, you'll seek out a few leads, identify fewer prospects, and generate lower revenue.
If your territory is being over-serviced, you'll have little work and too many team members to service a smaller area. This will increase costs and overall prices, which will ultimately lead to reduced sales.

If you want to get the most value from your prospects, you need to get your territory management right. And the best way to get this? Have a solid territory management plan.

5 Easy Steps To Create an Effective Sales Territory Plan

Below, we've created a step-by-step rundown to help you create a winning enterprise territory management plan template and set yourself up for sales success.

Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your Target Territory

The first step when managing a sales territory is to analyze your current and potential customers thoroughly. Think about what your customers have in common, including:

Their location
Their purchasing behavior, i.e, the product or offering they buy from your business
The pain points your product or offering solves for them
The events that cause them to buy—or not to buy—your product

Also, figure out the needs of the market that are not currently being fulfilled. This analysis will tell you how to position your products or services uniquely, giving you an edge over your competition.

Step 2: Do a Self-analysis

Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses and your capacity to win business from your new prospects. This will help you develop a territory plan that plays to your strengths while improving any weak areas.

Besides your capabilities, you should also consider your organization's resources and think of ways to utilize them efficiently on your sales patch.

Step 3: Set Measurable Goals

Using the information collected from Step 1 and Step 2, develop goals you want to achieve from implementing your territory management. The goals you could measure include:

Total income generated per month
Number of calls every week
Total sales closed every month
The ratio of leads to sales closed every month

After identifying your territory management goals, it can be valuable to document them to remain top of mind. There are a few ways you can do this:

Goal Statement: Your goal statement should address what you plan to achieve and what is at stake in your sales territory. When you put your goals on paper, it becomes concrete. Instead of wondering about objectives, you know what you want to achieve from which activity.
Key Milestones and Deadlines: With a roadmap for approaching your prospects, you will close sales and achieve your goals faster. Break down your plan into smaller milestones to make your road to success clear. For instance, if you want to close $100,000 of new business this year, you can track progress by breaking your plan down into smaller milestones, such as $15,000 by Month 2, $32,000 by Month 3, and so on.
Measurable Metrics: You'll need clearly defined KPIs to ensure your business goals are met in an efficient mannor. To get started on the right track, consider metrics like total sales created, leads contacted, and leads closed. Choose metrics that give you insight into productivity and can help track your progress against those goals effectively.

Your goals must be realistic and simultaneously push you to improve and grow to meet your sales targets.

Step 4: Chalk Out Your Territory Action Plan

Creating the plan is where all the action begins!

Generally, your sales manager will create a map for you to prevent any overlap between different territories and sales reps. Your job is to ensure you visit all opportunities within your region in a timely and effective manner.

Think about how often to call each account and whether the calls should be in person or by phone—or the more remote-friendly option: virtually. By planning out the nuances beforehand, you'll minimize time, effort, and money wastage and can direct your focus on converting your clients.

Put your call plans on a calendar and stick to it. This will force you to have the discipline needed to become a successful territory manager.

Step 5: Effective Record-Keeping

As you implement your territory management action plan, you should maintain an accurate and up-to-date record of outcomes in your organization's CRM. This will help you track your plan's effectiveness.

Log everything. If your data tracking starts taking too much time then invest in selling software to help.

Sales Territory Management Best Practices

Besides creating a sales management plan, you'll have to adopt a few best practices and make them a part of your daily routine to have massive sales success.

A: Create a Contact Rotation Schedule

Regularly check in on prospects to ensure they have all the information resources to move forward in the buying process. But while you do this, don't come off as too salesy and end up overwhelming them.

It's why we highly recommend creating a contact rotation schedule. Use it to determine the communication channel that works best for your specific territory and at what point in the sales process. It'll also make it easier to decide when and how often an account needs a phone call, an in-person visit, or a promotional email.

B: Don't Forget Your Current Accounts When Finding New Leads

Your sales territory management plan should have a dual focus on providing services to high-value accounts and developing relationships with potential new accounts.

High-value accounts are those guaranteed to bring in higher volume sales in shorter periods when compared to other accounts. However, while high-value accounts will help you meet your sales quotas, they aren't enough to smash through it. You'll also have to cultivate new accounts to expand the business and ensure professional growth.

C: Change With the Seasons

Customer requirements change with the seasons. Depending on the product you're selling, your territory's customer base and conditions might vary during the year.

To avoid issues, analyze your territory by looking at sales data over time. Find out:

What product or service do people buy during different times of the year?
When are they buying it?
How much do they spend on them?

Based on the data, identify whether your business has slow and busy seasons. Then adjust your goals, priority level, and plan of action as needed.

D: Align Your Sales Efforts With Other Departments

You are not the only one interacting with customers. While other departments may not be talking to your buyers face-to-face, they're still interacting with your accounts.

Try to collaborate with other departments—marketing and customer service—and get them involved with your territory. Maintaining consistent interactions will help you learn valuable insights that you can apply when selling.

E: Refresh Your Sales Map

Territory management is a never-ending cycle where you must continuously evaluate, implement, assess, and improve your action plan.

Yes, this regular evaluation and improvement is a lot of work. But it'll help you achieve more tremendous success and close more deals over the longer term.

Even after you draft a strong territory management plan, nothing is set in stone. Conditions can change at any time, regardless of your industry, economy, organization. So keep measuring progress and modifying aspects of your plan to stay relevant and get your desired results.

Once you get a firm grasp over your territory, accounts, and current and potential customers, you can effectively crack the complicated code of successful treasury management. All the benefits—and bonuses—will soon follow.

Empower yourself with territory management knowledge, and manage your accounts—current and potential—the right way.

The post Sales Territory Management 101: A Sales Rep’s Complete Guide appeared first on Salesman.com.

Replay: How To Stay In Control Of The Sales Conversation | Salesman Podcast Aug 20, 2022

Show notes

Deb Calvert is the President of People First Productivity Solutions, offering sales training, coaching, and leadership development programs. Deb also leads the Stop Selling & Start Leading® movement and founded The Sales Experts Channel. In this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Deb explains how we can use selling questions to remain in control of the sales conversation. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Deb Calvert President of People First Productivity Solutions Resources: Deb on LinkedIn PeopleFirstPS.com Book: DISCOVER Questions Get You Connected: for professional sellers Book: Stop Selling and Start Leading: How to Make Extraordinary Sales Happen Book: Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations TheSalesExpertsChannel.com Transcript Will Barron: Coming up on today's episode of the Salesman podcast. Deb Calvert: Your role as being a leader in any sales conversation. The word origin of lead is guide. So you are the guide. What buyers really want is to be inspired and to be led. If you be as a leader, you become perceived as a leader, and leaders, they operate in the realm of something that's of interest to others. Will Barron: Hello, Sales Nation. My name is will Barron, and I'm the host of the Salesman podcast. The world's most downloaded B2B sales show. And on today's episode, we have the legend that is Deb Calvert. She is the author of Discover Questions. One of the only sales specific books that I recommend to you guys, Sales Nation, and to anyone else who wants to learn how to sell as well. And we'll get into questions on this episode, how to use questions to stay in control of the sale, no matter what stunts your buyers are trying to pull on you. Everything that we talk about is available in the show note to this episode over at salesman.org. And with that, let's jump right into it. Who Between the Buyer and the Salesperson Should be in Control of the Sales Conversation? · [01:21] Will Barron: Conversations is what I want to talk about in this episode. We're going to look at how we can put ourselves, to use your words, in the driving seat of sales conversations moving forward. But let's get right back to basics here for someone who's perhaps relatively new to sales, whose job is it to control and drive a sales conversation forward? Is it the salesperson or is it that we should be listening to the buyer and we should just be sucking up to them and doing whatever they say and letting them be in control of the whole sales process? “Let's use this metaphor. Imagine being in a car and someone's in the driver's seat and that should be the salesperson, but I think that the buyer should be metaphorically the navigator they should absolutely be involved and you should be very closely listening to them. But before you can even get those roles worked out, you've got to make sure that you're both going to the same place.” – Deb Calvert · [01:40] Deb Calvert: Well, yes, we should listen to the buyer, but let's use that metaphor. So imagine being in a car and someone's in the driver's seat and that should be the salesperson, but I think that the buyer should be metaphorically the navigator they should absolutely be involved and you should be very closely listening to them. But before you can even get those roles worked out, you've got to make sure that you're both going to the same place. So knowing that destination, you want your buyer to be in the car with you. But here's the thing that I see. And I guess this is really why this conversation is so important. I see a lot of sellers who are thinking that it would be rude or presumptuous to get into the driver's seat, and so instead they end up driving around aimlessly, looking, hoping somebody's going to want to get in the car with them. Deb Calvert: So that implies first of all, that like it or not, you're in the driver's seat, but are you going to get a buyer in there with you? And the only way you do that in fact is ironically, by making sure it's clear that you're in the buyer's seat to you and to your buyer. You already are there, but making sure that your buyer is going to get into the car with you, that's what this is really all about. And the only way you get them there, just like an Uber driver, is by making sure you're going to that destination where they want to go. And that's how they get in the car with you. Does that make sense? It's very ponderous. Why Step One in a Sales Conversation Should be Setting a Clear Goal and Guiding the Buyer Towards That Goal · [03:07] Will Barron: That makes great sense. And Deb, is that step one then of both creating the conversation and the navigation system, is it to suss out going back and forth with the buyer where we are going, is that step one of stating that we're in control and then progressing it towards potentially a close? “Your role is being a leader in any sales conversation. The word origin of lead is guide. So you are the guide in that conversation with your buyer, and that is driving. You're taking somebody someplace, just like a guide would.” – Deb Calvert · [03:40] Deb Calvert: I believe it is. And even before that, it's step one of working out in your own mind, your role. Your role as driver. Your role, we'll even position this a little differently. I think people might like this better. Your role as being a leader in any sales conversation. The word origin of lead is guide. So you are the guide in that conversation with your buyer, and that is driving. You're taking somebody someplace, just like a guide would. Deb Reveals Why Most Salespeople Shy Away from Leading the Sales Conversation · [04:01] Will Barron: I want to get into questions and how we can navigate this moving forward, but why do perhaps some of the audience and perhaps myself as a younger sales rep, and you can give us your thoughts on this as well, Deb. Why do we sometimes shy away from this leadership role? Is it that we just don't want the responsibility of it? Why isn't it that we're doing this by default? Deb Calvert: Well, let me separate it from age, because I see a lot of older salespeople who do this too. It's that a seller isn't understanding the buyer and what they really want from a seller. So this is based on research. There are two bodies of research. So it's not just the recent research that went into Stop Selling and Start Leading. But it's the bigger body been going on now for almost 25 years, that'll age me, with discover questions. “The job of a leader is to take followers to a place the followers want to be. That's what guides do too. So if you think about being in the jungle and chopping down the vines that are in the jungle. As a guide, you're taking somebody somewhere, and you're making it easy for them to get there. But nobody is going to go through that jungle with you if it's not a place they want to be. And frankly, they don't need you, unless it's a place that is a little hard to get to, and they see that you, uniquely, you have some expertise that could get them there.” – Deb Calvert · [05:15] Deb Calvert: And what buyers really want is to be inspired and to be led. So let me see if I can't use a couple of other visuals here. The job of a leader is to take followers to a place the followers want to be. That's what guides do too. So if you think about being in the jungle and chopping down the vines that are in the jungle. As a guide, you're taking somebody somewhere, and you're making it easy for them to get there. But nobody is going to go through that jungle with you if it's not a place they want to be. And frankly, they don't need you, unless it's a place that is a little hard to get to, and they see that you, uniquely, you have some expertise that could get them there. Well, this is all about positioning that, whether you're using questions, whether you're using inspirational language, but it's all about leadership either way. Deb Calvert: And so step one is yes, knowing where your buyer wants to go. But even before that, having the mindset that you are a leader who is committed, interested, able to take them there. How to Squash Buyer Assumptions About Salespeople and Present Yourself as a Thought Leader · [06:27] Will Barron: It makes all sense, right? I think everyone's nodding their head in agreement with this. And for us to give buyers the ideal buying outcomes, we've sold the same product hundreds of thousands of times. They've probably not bought this product as many times as we've sold it. We've got insights. We've got resources in our own organisation. We can help these people, Deb. But just to play devil's advocate slightly here from the perspective of the buyer. I think most buyers, until they've dealt with you perhaps a couple of times, and perhaps we can talk about how we can set ourselves up to be known and perceived as leaders. Most buyers, when a salesperson reaches out to them, think, “[inaudible 00:06:37], another pesky salesperson trying to grab my money and take something and take up a load of my time.” So how do we set up the conversation so that we come across as a leader? So then I'm assuming that once we're perceived as a leader, all this gets easier as we go throughout the sales process. “The fastest, quickest way to get away from that being perceived as a pushy salesperson who just wants to reach into my pocket, is that you've asked me a question, or you've somehow demonstrated that you care about me and you're interested in where I want to go and what's important to me.” – Deb Calvert · [07:21] Deb Calvert: It does. If you behave as a leader, you become perceived as leader. And leaders, they operate in the realm of something that's of interest to others. See, it's not true that leaders live in ivory towers or that leaders are lonely at the top. That's not true. Real leaders, the ones who inspire us that we choose to follow, they have an interest in us. So the fastest, quickest way to get away from that being perceived as a pushy salesperson who just wants to reach into my pocket, is that you've asked me a question, or you've somehow demonstrated that you care about me and you're interested in where I want to go and what's important to me. Deb Calvert: I say questions because that is frankly the fastest, easiest, clearest way to demonstrate that. Otherwise, you're in the assuming place and that's always dangerous. But a question, some great questions. And this is going to depend on the industry you work on a little bit. It's going to depend on your personality a little bit. It's going to depend on your buyer and what you know about them. But by and large, it's a question that sounds like, “What is it that you hope to accomplish?” Not what do you want to do with my product? That's too early. But bigger. What do you want? What do you hope to accomplish? What are your goals? What are the things that you value right now that are urgent and important to you? Deb Calvert: And when we start there, it does change the conversation, it does engage the buyer, and it does differentiate you from just that person who's waiting with baited breath to pounce on some opening that is all about you and serving your own interest. Will Barron: So two things I think you really subtly hear, Deb, and you might not have even realised it, because you're so ingrained in all of this. One, and I've never heard it put like this before. You said you want to be a leader that people choose to follow, as opposed to, we've probably all had that sales manager that's cracking the whip and constantly got us nervous about hitting target and trying to bully us into doing more work. We want to be a leader that inspires. You've used that word a few times. So I think that's important here just to frame up what a leader is and what we are aspiring to be, as salespeople, in front of our audience of buyers. Will Barron: And the other thing, and I want to just get clarification from you here. When we ask a question like, “What is your goals?” Are we keeping it an open-ended question like that? Or are we asking a more close ended question of, “What are your goals with your marketing this year with this range of products that I also happen to sell?” The Differences Between a Leader and a Manager in Sales · [09:41] Deb Calvert: Yeah, those are two very important questions. I'm going to start with the first one, because people often misunderstand this very important thing. Managing and leading are not the same. There are lots of managers who have authority. You to do what they say if you want to keep your job. That's not leadership. Ideally a manager and a leader are the same person, but it doesn't always work that way. Leadership happens at every level and in every kind of a relationship. And leadership is, as I said, it's to guide, whereas manage the word origin there means to handle. I've got to get today's work done today. So that puts leaders more often in the longer term and managers in the shorter term. And I don't mean this to sound disparaging to managers, both leaders and managers are important, but if you don't have a title of manager and you're working with, for example, a buyer where you have no authority, you can still lead. So yeah, really, really good clarification there. Comparing the Effectiveness of Open-ended Versus Closed Questions in Sales Conversations · [10:43] Deb Calvert: The other question is a good one. A broader versus a more narrow question. And I do strongly recommend, as counterintuitive as it may sound, because it will feel like it's going to take longer, but I strongly recommend, you start with that broader approach. What are your goals for the year, period? What are your goals for your legacy? What are your goals for your team? These are all bigger questions. They have nothing at all to do with your product. They have nothing at all to do with marketing or positioning or branding. Later, right? Later that question will be fine. But we had started talking about how do you open up the conversation and reposition yourself so that people will willingly choose to follow you. Will stick around with you and take the call with you. “Let's say you're a media rep. If you ask, “What are your goals for your marketing?” If you're selling some sort of technology, “What are your goals for your user experience? What are your goals for your tech support?” If you ask it in a very narrow way, it becomes too quickly about you and about what you sell. But when you ask it in the broader way, you immediately tap into whatever truly matters to that individual. And then you're talking their language and you're showing them that you care about what matters to them.” – Deb Calvert · [11:40] Deb Calvert: And let me go ahead and explain and why. When we ask very narrow questions, let's say you're a media rep. If you ask, “What are your goals for your marketing?” If you're selling some sort of technology, “What are your goals for your user experience? What are your goals for your tech support?” If you ask it in a very narrow way, it becomes too quickly about you and about what you sell. But when you ask it in the broader way, you immediately tap into whatever truly matters to that indi…

Full show notes at the publisher

**This Is the Future Of Sales - Don't Get Left Behind | Selling Made Simple** Aug 19, 2022
Show notes

In just seven years, the SaaS industry has grown from $31.5 billion to an astounding $171.9 billion. And by 2024, it’s on track to reach $369.4 billion!

For sales reps like you, the writing on the walls is this—no matter what you sell today, you’ll be selling SaaS in your next sales role. And that my friends **is a good thing**. Today we’re talking about *why*, and what you can do to take advantage of this massive sales industry shift.

Let’s get real here. The job you have right now? You *probably* won’t have it forever. Businesses go under. Goals and needs change. And salary objectives shift. That’s okay! The average person will change their job five to seven times during their working life.

What *matters*, though, is how prepared you are for that next job. And as a sales professional, it’s *incredibly* likely that your next position is going to be in an SaaS company. So in order to make that transition as smooth as possible, you owe it to yourself to find out what this industry is all about. And most importantly, what does working in it mean for you?

Alrighty, so starting out, let’s hit a basic question…

1. **What Is SaaS?**

Well, SaaS is short for “software as a service.” Basically, it’s a model where businesses license software to customers in exchange for a subscription, be it monthly, yearly, or any other timeframe. These businesses also “deliver” the software in a sense by hosting it over an internet connection.

As a result, customers don’t have to install via a CD, have a tech crew come in and set up their system, or engage in any other cumbersome physical onboarding. Connection is on-demand. And with just a few clicks, customers can start using the product for their business.

Think of apps like Dropbox, HubSpot, or cloud-based Microsoft Office 365

Okay so the question is…

2. **Why Will You Be Selling It**

Well to put it simply, companies across the world are making the shift to this model because it offers some very real and very lucrative benefits. For instance…

A) It Brings In More Revenue

It brings in more revenue. And it brings in more *consistent* revenue. See, an SaaS model is built on recurring subscriptions. If a customer doesn’t cancel their subscription, they’ll be billed again for the next cycle. And that means the **default** is staying a customer.

Compare that to the traditional model. The **default** after a purchase is nothing. Because it takes *work* for that customer to buy again.

So as long as an SaaS company is keeping its buyers happy, those customers won’t go through the hassle of canceling.

And given our tendency toward the path of least resistance, that often means an SaaS company will bring in more money over time compared to traditional models. Plus, that revenue is consistent, making it easier to plan ahead.

B) Allows for Automatic Upsells

Allows for automatic upsells. SaaS products typically have multiple tiers to choose from. The more you pay, the more functionality and features you gain access to.

So as an SaaS customer’s needs grow and expand, they can seamlessly choose to upgrade to a new tier. No searching for a new provider. No going through a whole new lengthy sales cycle. Instead, they can make the switch with just the click of a button. Easy as that.

C) Higher Business Valuations

Higher business valuations. Now, there are two components to this idea.

First, SaaS is expanding. Remember what I said before? About SaaS growing 5X over the last seven years? And nearly 12X from 2015 to 2024? That means the future is SaaS. And businesses are valuated according to that trend.

Secondly, and this might be above our heads as just knuckle-dragging salespeople. But we sell what drives a company’s shareholder value. The easier it is for US to sell, the better a company is going to fare. And the more it’s going to be worth.

3. **Why This Shift Is Great**

Why is this shift great for **you** as a sales professional? What does all this mean for on-the-ground benefits?

Well, first and foremost, there’s…

**A) Long-Term Residual Commissions**

Long-term residual commissions. If your mouth isn’t watering already at the thought here, it should be.

Many SaaS businesses reward their salespeople with commissions that **continue** over the course of a customer’s relationship with the product. So if a client stays subscribed for, say, 10 years, you will **continually** earn a commission for that lifetime.

Just imagine, a *single sale* can lead to a decade of recurring payouts. Sounds like heaven! The only trick here is that the better you sell them on your product, the more likely they’ll be to stick around. So it’s still worth putting in the effort up front and focusing on your skills.

**B) An Easier Closing Cycle**

For SaaS products, most customers get the majority of their info from automated funnels. Ebooks, case studies, how-tos, in-depth articles—this is where your clients will dive deep into what your product can do AND what they can do with it.

As a result, you don’t have to do as much selling as with traditional models.

On top of that, implementation is as easy as a click of a button. And the ability to split costs on a month-by-month basis lowers the biggest barrier to buying—expense.

And you know what that means—it’s easier to close!

**C) Clearer Selling Points**

SaaS products are, by their very nature, dependent on the internet. And that dependence brings with it a few very clear selling points that you can use to nudge buyers towards that “yes.”

For instance, many SaaS products are designed to work in tandem with other solutions. For instance, HubSpot integrates with over a hundred different apps to simplify automating your business, updating your contacts, and much more.

That dependence on internet connectivity also allows for regular software updates and hassle-free cancellations.

And these, like integrations, make selling your product easier. Giving you more time and the opportunity for more sales success.

The post This Is the Future Of Sales – Don’t Get Left Behind appeared first on Salesman.com.

**9 Powerful Sales Discovery Questions (And 12 Essential Follow-ups)** Aug 18, 2022
Show notes

We all know the stereotype of the dodgy used car salesman. But contrary to popular belief, sales isn't about tricking people into buying. Instead, it's about giving customers the solution to their problem (whether they know they have the problem or not).

The tricky part for salespeople is finding out if their solution is a good fit for their buyer's needs.

Is that buyer actually struggling with a problem you can solve? Do their needs align with what you can provide? Are they equipped with the resources to use your solution correctly? Discovery calls are designed to provide this invaluable information and more.

With this discovery info, you can better qualify leads, craft the perfect sales pitch and close more deals.

This guide will help you uncover your buyer's actual needs and home in on their underlying business problem with a simple step-by-step sales process. We'll be looking at nine open-ended discovery questions along with 12 powerful follow-up questions.

**What Are Discovery Questions?**

Discovery questions are the questions you ask sales leads during a discovery call. Of course, you've likely already learned a bit about the prospect before jumping on the phone. But your discovery call will help you fill in the details about their situation and create a clearer picture of their needs.

The answers to your discovery questions let you determine several things.

If your product offering can solve the needs of a sales lead.

If you can deliver your product within the buyer's constraints (i.e., timeline, budget, etc.).

The best way to pitch your product.

If the prospect's answers line up well during your discovery call, then they'll move on to the next phase of the sales process. If not, you can redirect them through another nurturing campaign. Or they'll drop out from your sales funnel entirely.

So, what makes a sales discovery question effective at uncovering your sales lead's genuine business problems?

**Principles of Great Sales Discovery Questions**

The types of discovery questions (and how you ask them) determine the quality of the information you extract on your call. With the right discovery call questions, you can get to the heart of your prospect's needs. The wrong one? You may lose the buyer's trust and sink the deal entirely.

So, what do great sales discovery calls look like?

**They're Open-Ended** – Avoiding “yes or no's” gets the sales lead talking and lets them avoid feeling “trapped” into an answer.

**They're Informed** – Do your research beforehand. Novice-level questions torpedo your credibility in an instant. But informed ones prove you're a professional worthy of trust.

**They Move the Needle** – Each question you ask should always take you one step closer to qualifying or disqualifying. They allow sales reps to dig deeper and move the entire sales process forward. There's value in building rapport, but time is precious. So don't waste it on filler. Try to keep questions in line with proven frameworks like MEDDPICC.

**They're Ripe for Follow-Up Questions** – A discovery call should be a conversation, not an interrogation for your prospect. They should add value to the potential buyer. Asking relevant follow-up questions lets you naturally uncover pain points and hints for creating a perfectly catered sales pitch. Plus, it helps build rapport which will help your deals close faster.

**9 Qualifying Discovery Questions for Sales**

Asking the right discovery call questions is key to uncovering the information you need to create an irresistible sales pitch.

So lets get practical. Below are nine discovery questions you should always use on your discovery calls. You'll also find 12 follow-up questions you can use to extract even more valuable info.

**1. “Tell Me About Your Company & Your Role”**

Once you've broken the ice, it's time for some sales discovery. This question lets the potential buyer take the lead and ease into the conversation at their own pace. Best of all, people love talking about themselves. So they'll often be excited to share.

Besides building rapport, you'll also be uncovering hints about the prospective buyer. Hints like do they have decision-making power in this deal? What areas of the business do they oversee? And what difficulties have they been hitting recently?

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“What specific metrics are you responsible for?”*** – Perfect for aligning your pitch to what's specifically essential to their role. Plus, it may help uncover their decision-making power along the way.

**2. “Tell Me About Your Upcoming Goals”**

This question is an excellent lead-in to get more information specifically related to the prospects business needs. It's a fundamental discovery call question. For example, are they looking for a way to save on costs? Streamline their processes? Boost their customer satisfaction?

Plus, the open-endedness of it keeps the conversation moving forward without sounding pushy.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“What is your timeline for achieving those goals?”***– The buyer's answer to this question lets you determine if the implementation for your product matches up with their timeline needs.

**3. “What's Keeping You From Achieving These Goals?”**

It may be vague. But by keeping things general, you'll be able to extract which problems are the most pressing for the decision maker. Along the way, you can determine if they're struggling in areas related to your product offerings.

This question also leads the buyer into a “challenge-oriented” state of mind. The more concrete those challenges become in their heads, the more valuable your product will seem if it can solve them and the more likely you'll be to move forward in the sales process.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“Why are you having those problems?”***– The answer here helps identify if their current solution is working and if yours can help.

**4. “What Happens if These Problems Go Unresolved?”**

Setting up the “what if” scenario should be a go-to in your sales toolbox when talking with the decision maker. It solidifies the risks involved in letting this problem go. It underscores the challenges the prospect is facing. And if the consequences are dire, it makes your solution to their problem that much more appealing.

Beyond that, this question also lets you gauge the buyer's urgency, whether you need to increase that urgency in your final pitch and their real pain points.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“What would success look like exactly?”***– This follow-up helps you determine if their expectations are realistic and if you can help—both vital for deciding whether to qualify or disqualify.

**5. “Who Else Is Involved in Choosing a Solution?”**

One of the essential aspects of any qualification framework is determining the authority of your contact. Do they have decision-making power? Or are they just the gatekeeper who reports back to the actual authority?

Rather than asking, “Who's really in charge here?” this question lets you uncover that information without eroding the rapport with your current contact.

**Great Follow-Up Questions:**

***“Do you already have specific criteria crafted for choosing a solution”***– The holy grail of qualifying and disqualifying information. Some buyers won't give up these criteria willingly. But if you've built up a great rapport, you may be able to get access.

***“Who created those criteria?”***– A subtle hint at who the decision-makers are.

**6. “If We Can Find the Right Solution for Your Problem, What Will It Take To Implement The Solution?”**

The point of this question is three-fold.

First, this question gives you a clearer idea of the process ahead. What steps will we need to go through to get the deal approved? Which departments will it have to pass through beforehand? The info here will help you nail down a timeline and hint at their authority.

Second, it further connects your product to the idea of solving their underlying problem. And that makes it easier for them to get to “yes.”

And lastly, using the vital “we” language puts you and the buyer on the same team and boosts rapport.

**Great Follow-Up Questions:**

***“What are the main hurdles you see for a smooth implementation?”*** – This further clarifies the last question and gives you an idea of the potential challenges involved ahead, not just the decision-making process.

***“What are your other options for solving this problem?”*** – This question reveals your competitors or whether the buyer is considering putting the project off. Either way, it'll give you specifics to leverage in your pitch.

**7. “What Is Your Implementation Timeline?”**

Now we're a bit more in the nitty-gritty. And by this point, you'll have built up a strong rapport, so tackling these details should be acceptable. How much time do we really have here? And is it even feasible?

Here you'll want to be checking for realistic expectations and disqualifying information, too. If the prospects current solution isn't driving some serious pain points, then now is the time to end the discovery call and move on.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“Are you ready to begin solving this today?”*** – How urgently are they ready to fix this problem? Ideally, you'll want them to be excited about the solution. And if they aren't, it's your job to build that excitement.

**8. “What Is Your Approximate Budget?”**

Discussing monetary terms can always be tricky. So be sure to leave this question for later in the discovery conversation. Keeping figures ballpark is a great way to soften the blow, too.

That being said, enquiring about the budget is a necessity. If they can't afford the project, then this deal is a non-starter.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“Is the budget owner an ‘executive sponsor'?”*** – Are there any senior-level employees directly involved? If so, will you be speaking with them too?

**9. “How Will This Make Your Life Better?”**

Last but not least, it's essential to wrap up your conversations by helping your sales lead envision their future specifically. Will they have more time on their hands? Can they finally start attracting their ideal audience? Will their department be able to boost their efficiency and meet lofty goals?

Get the buyer to think about those benefits. Doing so makes your solution more appealing. It also motivates your sales lead to sell your product more passionately to other stakeholders.

**Great Follow-Up Question:**

***“How can I help make this easy?”*** – This final question lets the buyer ask you questions and request more information if needed. Plus, it's a great way to continue building rapport.

**Learn To Ask the Right Questions**

A strategic discovery call does more than just let you see if a sales lead is a good fit for your business. It also allows you to uncover valuable information that can be used to deliver a spot-on sales pitch. For you, that means higher close rates and better commissions.

If you're getting on plenty of sales calls with leads but still struggling to understand what their business problems are, asking these nine discovery questions will help.

The post 9 Powerful Sales Discovery Questions (And 12 Essential Follow-ups) appeared first on Salesman.com.

**How I Do A Full Weeks Sales Activity in 6 Hours 🕑 | Selling Made Simple** Aug 16, 2022
Show notes

Look, I’m a busy guy. I run a sales training company, produce hours of content each week, run 15-20 weekly training calls, and single-handedly sell 7-figures worth of enterprise level training packages. But I also take my dog on long walks every day. I practice drums each morning for an hour. And my family life is full and fulfilling.

It’s true you don’t have time to do it ALL in sales. But if you prioritize your time for maximum productivity like I do, you can still be highly successful in B2B sales while living your best life. Here’s how.

1. **Reverse Engineering**

So much time is wasted on tasks that don’t do a damn thing to help you reach your goals. It’s a problem that comes from having the wrong perspective.

Instead of looking *forwards* to decide what needs to be done to reach your destination, look *backwards*. Imagine what you want, typically it’s going to be a financial goal. From there, start moving *backwards* in time. What do you have to do each year that’ll build up to that goal? What about each month? Each day?

Say you want to earn an extra $50k this year. Let’s start there. $50k in commissions equals an extra 30 closed deals. For every closed deal, there are 24 discovery calls that don’t work out. Which means you need 750 discovery calls in a year or about 190 per quarter, 63 per month, and around 15 per week.

And with those numbers in mind, you’ve got EXACTLY the work you need to do each day to reach your goal.

2. **Time Blocking**

Next up is time blocking.

This is one of my favorites. I’ve even talked about it before.

Essentially, you need to start scheduling your important tasks. Don’t just have a mental to-do list that you’re crossing off throughout the day. Instead, put all the tasks you need to have done into your calendar.

But here’s the most important part—you have to **stick to those times**. Don’t spend a second more or a second less on the tasks that you schedule. If you waver even just a little from those scheduled times, tasks will start to bleed over into others. And the entire system falls apart.

So schedule it. And stick to it like hell.

3. **Paper To-Do**

Keeping a paper list with you at all times makes it easy to add to it and cross things out throughout the day, no matter where you are.

Feel free to plug them all into a digital list at the end of the day to keep things organized. I do the same thing with the app Things on iOS.

But there’s something so viscerally satisfying about crossing tasks off one by one.

4. **Phone Pruning**

This one’s going to hurt. But trust me, it’s worth it.

Get rid of the distractions on your phone. Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn even. If you’re spending non-work time on it, nix it. Now, there are some features out there that make it 10X easier to concentrate while at work. I use the Focus feature on iOS all the time.

But eliminating ANY temptation whatsoever is a powerful way to keep your eye on the ball at all times.

5. **The Pomodoro Technique**

This technique is surprisingly effective for how simple it really is. Next time you’ve got a task you don’t want to be doing, say cold calling or updating your CRM, commit yourself to it for 25 minutes. That’s it. And then schedule a five minute break.

When you structure your entire day with this technique, something pretty amazing happens—you *stop* wanting to *stop*.

I’ve found the hardest thing for me is simply getting started on a task. After that part’s over, my momentum usually just keeps me going and going.

With this technique, you’re making the biggest barrier (getting started) easier to overcome. After all, it’s just 25 minutes!

6. **Parkinson’s Law**

I like this one a lot because it’s so unintuitive. Parkinson’s Law basically states that the time it takes to finish a task depends on how much time you allot to doing it.

So if you’re giving yourself three hours to perform some menial task that should only take one hour, it’s still going to take three hours to do.

The moral of the story here is that you should experiment with harsher self-imposed deadlines. Sure what you produce might not be quite as polished, but you’ve now bought yourself time to polish and refine the finished product, rather than being in a rush to finish it last minute.

7. **Continuous Structure**

Technique seven, continuous structure.

How often do you find yourself struggling to be productive after a lazy weekend? All the time, right?

Well the problem is, you’ve only got one brain. And when your habits and your thoughts are one way at the office and the complete opposite at home, making the switch between the two can be damn difficult.

So instead of trying to keep the two separate, try using the same techniques in both.

If you find for example that time blocking is doing wonders in the office, try doing it for date night with your partner each week. Fight to protect it like you would a massive client meeting.

You may be surprised how well these techniques work in both worlds.

8. **The Power of “No”**

And eight, the power of no.

Stop being so nice. Just stop it. Agreeing to every demand, every unreasonable meeting time, every covering of someone else’s blunder—it’s sucking the energy right out of you. Even worse, it’s letting colleagues, clients, and yes, bosses, know that it’s 100% a-okay to walk all over you.

Listen, you’ve only got one life. And if you want to make your goal omelet, you’re gonna have to break a few eggs.

Start getting comfortable with saying no more often. Saying “no” gives clear boundaries. It stops clients walking all over you. And saying it just a few times a day will free up hours and hours of time each week.

Time you can spend on more important things like I don’t know, say **doing what you want**.

So say no. There’s no way you’ll regret it.

How much you can get done each day comes down to time management. And if you want to get better at using your time more wisely, use these eight techniques…

The post How I Do A Full Weeks Sales Activity in 6 Hours 🕑 appeared first on Salesman.com.

Buying Signals: Know Exactly When To Close The Sale Aug 15, 2022

Show notes

Only 19% of sales close, so you can have lots of selling conversations and the best closing skills but still not win new business consistently. That's because there is more to closing a sale than asking for the business.

Not all prospects are a good fit for your product or service. And if your potential buyer isn't ready to make a purchase, then your odds of successfully closing the deal is dead. That's why you need to recognize your prospects' buying signals.

But this isn't only about identifying when your leads are ready to buy your product or service. These signs occur throughout the buyer's journey.

So, you need to watch and listen for buying signals during prospecting calls, discovery calls, demos, and every other prospect engagement. This includes phone calls, emails, social media interactions, data within your sales tools and video calls.

But what are buying signals?

Definition of the term ‘buying signals'

Buying signals are verbal and non-verbal cues, signs, or indicators that tell you when the lead is either ready to buy or interested in moving forward in their buying process.

You will often see buying signals from your prospect when a lead schedules a discovery call or when an opportunity responds to an email you've sent requesting additional information. In both cases, the prospect is giving buying signals indicating their interest in moving forward even though they aren't ready to become customers yet, by signing on the dotted line.

Buying signals are like road signs, helping you recognize how to proceed with each prospect. A lack of buying signals might even mean not advancing them through the sales process.

Why are buying signals essential to recognize?

Spotting these buying signals is more critical than ever because sales reps are getting less time with prospects. For example, B2B buyers currently spend only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers. And if the prospect is considering multiple solutions, your time with this potential customer drops to as little as 4-5% of the time it takes for them to make a buying decision.

This lack of face time with your leads gives you less time to pick up on indicators that the lead is interested in buying or moving forward with the sales process. So, it's essential that you learn to quickly recognize buying signals as they happen so you can respond appropriately. Reading the prospect's buying signals can also save you time by allowing you to disqualify potential customers too. You want to disqualify potential buyers because you don't want to spend precious selling time with prospects who aren't a good fit for your product.

They are less likely to close or may take longer to close and are more likely to be dissatisfied or churn. Churn is when a customer cancels their subscription to your product after a short period or chooses not to renew.

Ultimately, by spending your time with highly qualified leads who will most benefit from your solution, you significantly increase your close rate.

What are buying signals in sales?

Buying signals can be verbal or non-verbal, and some are more subtle than others, but with practice, you can learn to recognize all the different buying signals communicated by your prospects.

Here are some examples of positive buying signals or signs when a prospect is interested in buying from you:

Non-verbal buying signals:

Nodding, direct eye contact, and paying attention during your conversation or presentation. This is a sign the lead is interested. If you can't see the other person, listen carefully to determine if they are fully engaged in the conversation.
Smiling and appearing excited about your product or service is undoubtedly a positive sign. If you cannot see the person, you can listen for a positive tone in their voice.
Involving others on the buying committee in meetings, calls or email communications indicates the prospect is seriously considering taking the next step in the buying process.
Responding quickly to email communications shows the prospect is interested in continuing the conversation with you.
Quality of email responses is a buying signal, too, since a prospects willingness to provide detailed and timely responses to email inquiries reveals their level of interest in advancing through the buying process.

Open Communication buying signals:

Openly discussing the needs, challenges, and problems the lead want to solve shows that the prospect is intent on finding out if your product is the best solution.
Telling you about problems or issues with their current vendor is a transparent buying signal from your sales lead revealing that they are unhappy with the solution they are using. This enables you to learn more about the potential customer's preferences.
Sharing their goals, ideal end-state, or desired results is also an indicator that the prospect wants to give you the information needed to determine if your product or service will meet their needs.
Expresses an interest in future communications like scheduling another meeting, a discovery call, demo, or proposal. Or if the potential buyer asks when they will hear from you again. This is a buying sign demonstrating the prospect's interest in advancing the buying process.
Repeating or confirming attractive benefits indicates what the prospect is most excited about or interested in.

Questions that are a buying signal:

Asking questions during a demo or presentation instead of waiting until the end is a sure sign the buyer is interested in learning more about your product or service and its ability to meet their needs. When the lead asks questions like “how quick can we get started” you know you're close to getting a contract signed.
Questions about payment methods are a strong indicators the lead is close to making a buying decision. The lead being proactive about the price means your deals are on track.
Prospects picturing themselves using your product or service is a strong buying signal. This is seen when potential customers ask questions in terms of ‘When I use the product, will…?' or ‘How quickly will I see an improvement?' or ‘Will I see X that quickly too?'
Asking about delivery, installation, or on-boarding procedures and timing are strong buying signals since the prospect is wondering how soon they can benefit from your solution.
Requesting general pricing information is a buying signal that shows a prospect is interested.

Requests that are buying signals:

Wants to know more about your company. A request from the prospect indicates they like your solution and are trying to determine your company's longevity or its financial stability.
Requesting case studies or research reports by a prospect in a complex sale shows how interested they are in your product or service
Asking to speak with existing customers demonstrates that the prospective customer has a strong interest in moving forward
Asking to try the product before they buy is a strong buying signal. Prospects who are interested in taking the time to try a product during a free trial are seriously considering buying. If you offer a free trial, be sure to check in with the prospect at previously agreed-upon intervals to ensure everything is going smoothly.
Requesting a quote is a buying signal, but it's essential to present the pricing to the prospect, so you have the opportunity to get feedback from the potential customer. And, in this case, you want to be sure you are presenting to the decision-maker. Otherwise, you may never find out where you stand in comparison to competitors.

Examples of negative buying signals or signs when a potential buyer is not interested in buying from you:

Unresponsive or reluctant to schedule time to learn more. When a prospect won't respond to your social media, email or phone messages, or they are hesitant to schedule another call after initially speaking with you, is a clear sign the buyer isn't interested.
Indicating they are still looking into other options may mean the prospect isn't interested. Or, at the very least, it means ‘not now.'
Reluctance to talk about their needs, challenges or goals is a sign the prospect isn't presently interested in learning more about your solution.
Unwilling to share their budget may be a sign that there isn't a need currently, the prospect isn't interested, or there isn't sufficient funding available to make a deal happen.
Hesitant to identify or introduce the decision-making is a negative indicator since initial contacts are often not making the final buying decision. If you can't find out who is making the final decision at the prospect's company, you are wasting your time.
Telling you, they are not interested is a sure sign that this prospect will not become a customer… at least not now.

How to get better at spotting buying signals

An excellent way to develop your ability to recognize buying signals is to record your phone and video calls. Then review each call to see which buying signals were displayed by the prospect. Next, identify the ones you didn't recognize in real-time during the live call, so you don't miss them next time around. Doing this consistently will help you hear and see buying signs more quickly until it becomes automatic.

Conclusion

Even the most skilled reps don't close every prospect. It doesn't matter how well your sales and marketing team have done, the buyers purchasing intent is down to you to understand.

But the better you get at recognizing buying signals, the more time you'll end up spending with highly qualified prospects. This increases the percentage of prospects that you close. And it prevents you from wasting valuable selling time with leads who aren't a good fit for your product or service. This makes it easier to hit or exceed your quota targets and increases your number of sales.

So, learn to identify buying signals, revisit all your calls to figure out which signs you missed, and you'll soon become proficient at knowing when to progress the sale to a close.

The post Buying Signals: Know Exactly When To Close The Sale appeared first on Salesman.com.

Replay: What Is MEDDIC? (Win More Sales With This Process) | Salesman Podcast Aug 12, 2022

Show notes

In this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Andy Whyte dissects each step in the MEDDIC process and explains how B2B sales professionals can leverage the framework to both progress and close more sales. Andy is the author of MEDDIC: The Ultimate Guide and an expert on using MEDDIC in the complex sale You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Andy Whyte Author: MEDDIC: The Ultimate Guide Resources: Book: MEDDICC: The ultimate guide to staying one step ahead in the complex sale Andy on LinkedIn MEDDICC.com Book: The Challenger Customer: Selling to the Hidden Influencer Who Can Multiply Your Results Book: The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation Transcript Will Barron: Coming up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast. Andy Whyte: I think the thing is this, a lot of… MEDDICC is probably the most widely used methodology or framework or whatever you want to call it, in enterprise sales. What you find is that everyone has a different word for it. As a salesperson, you really only have one thing, one asset that really is going to dictate how successful you are and that's time. Andy Whyte: The paper process is the one that will have the biggest impact on whether your deal will close on time when you think it will. Because once you're a vendor of choice, once you're past selling and you're into closing, it's the paper process that takes the time and… Will Barron: Hello, Sales nation. My name is Will Barron and I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast, the world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, we have an absolute legend. We have Andy Whyte. He is the author of the book MEDDICC. You can find at meddicc.com, which is M-E-D-D-I-C-C.com. Will Barron: On today's episode, unsurprisingly, we're talking about MEDDICC as a framework and how it can help you close more complex and enterprise-level sales. Everything we talk about in this episode is available in the show notes over at salesman.org. With that said, let's jump right into it. Andy, welcome to the Salesmen Podcast. Andy Whyte: Thank you, Will. It's awesome to be here. As I've mentioned to you before, I'm a big fan. I've been watching the shows. Thank you for having me on. Andy’s Definition of MEDDICC · [01:30] Will Barron: I appreciate it. I'm excited to have you on. On this episode, we're going to get into MEDDICC. We're going to hopefully break down the analogy and go through each of these sections the best we can in the time that we have. But Andy, how do you describe MEDDICC? Would you say it's a sales methodology or do you have a better way or a different way of describing what it is? Andy Whyte: Yeah, great question. I think the thing is this, a lot of… MEDDICC, is probably the most widely used methodology or framework or whatever you want to call it in enterprise sales. What you find is that everyone has a different word for it. I personally, don't really mind what you call it, whether you call it a framework or a methodology. The only caveat I have around that is that one of the beautiful things about MEDDICC is it works with any other sales methodology. It plays very, very nicely. “At its core MEDDICC is, I would say, a qualification framework. It helps people to qualify, should I be in this deal? And if I should be, what should I be doing to ensure I'm going to win it?” – Andy Whyte · [02:28] Andy Whyte: In fact, I think it enhances other methodology. Whether you use something like Sandler or Challenger Sale or any one of the many great methodologies that are out there, it kind of can work very well with MEDDICC. But at its core MEDDICC is, I would say, a qualification framework. It helps people to qualify should I be in this deal? And if I should be, what should I be doing to ensure I'm going to win it? Why is The Sales Qualification Process So Important? · [02:47] Will Barron: For someone who is perhaps less familiar with a complex sale or high value deal size sale, why is the qualification process so important? Just to set up the rest of our conversation here. “As a salesperson, you really only have one thing, one asset that really, it's going to dictate how successful you are and that's time. If you are a salesperson who is running around chasing after every single opportunity you have without kind of putting yourself on the front foot by identifying what your chances are of winning, then you're going to spread yourself very, very thin.” – Andy Whyte · [02:53] Andy Whyte: Yeah. Good. Good question. So as a salesperson, you really only have one thing, one asset that really, it's going to dictate how successful you are and that's time. If you are a salesperson who is running around chasing after every single opportunity you have without kind of putting yourself on the front foot by identifying what your chances are of winning, then you're going to spread yourself very, very thin. “Not all good salespeople are good forecasters, but all good forecasters are good salespeople.” – Andy Whyte · [03:21] Andy Whyte: I have this saying which is that not all good salespeople are good forecasters, but all good forecasters are good salespeople. If you're a sales leader and if you're talking about, as we all do, to aspire to the very best jobs in sales, what sales leaders of the best jobs out there are looking for is they're looking for somebody who can accurately forecast, who can say, “I've got this deal and I'm going to win it and it's going to close on this date.” So it can be forecasted out. Andy Whyte: And if you are a salesperson that can do that, then you will always have the best job. You will always work for the best companies. But the key to being able to answer those questions and forecast accurately is being able to qualify your pipeline. Will Barron: I love it. I love it. Just a personal anecdote from my side, 99% of the friction I've had with sales managers and sales leadership in the past when I was working in sales was the fact that I would always hit target, I'd always do pretty well, not the best, but I'd always do pretty well. But there was no forecasting. Will Barron: It would always look like it would just flukally, I had to close one big deal a year that would crush it 80% or 20% of the target and get me beyond my 80% mark. It looks like it comes in flukally. It doesn't go in flukally. It came on the back of hard work but because I wasn't using a methodology or a system like MEDDICC as well as what I should have been to qualify, I just got managers on my back all the time and that made the last part of my final sales job, it a bit of a mess and a bit of a pain. Andy Breaks Down the MEDDICC Framework · [05:02] Will Barron: There's definitely value in this, not just in getting more deals done but from having a better relationship with your internal stakeholders as well. So without Andy, breakdown MEDDICC. Give us the high level of what the acronym stands for and then we can perhaps go through each step as best we can with the time that we have. Andy Whyte: Of course, yeah. To do that, if I may, I'll just take us back in time a little bit to where MEDDICC was formed because it beautifully explains why MEDDICC exists. MEDDICC was created by a guy called Dick Dunkel in the '90s. I think it was 1995 in a company called PTC, Parametric Technology Corporation. Andy Whyte: They were a big, big organisation, over 1,000 salespeople. They had this challenge where they started to plateau, they were starting to lose sales people. It was kind of that sort of growing pain at that size issue. The sales leader at the time, a guy called John McMahon, who is by the way, the pound for pound, the greatest sales leader of all time. This guy is the Maradona of sales leadership, the [inaudible 00:05:57] of sales leadership, he's the guy, greatest of all time. Andy Whyte: He pulled the guy called Dick Dunkel, as I mentioned, out of the field, who was a great, great salesperson. He said, “Dick, we need more people like you basically. We need you to train the sales team to be like you.” And so he was doing that and if you can imagine, there's a thousand salespeople, that's lots of different teams and regions. Andy Whyte: What Dick was doing was travelling around meeting the teams. He ran this exercise, which I think is brilliant, which he still runs today, by the way, where he asked three key questions. Number one, why do we win deals? Number two, why do we lose deals? And number three, why do deals slip? What he noticed by asking those questions to multiple different teams with those six elements that were the same everywhere he went, they were six common elements of the reasons why if they had these elements in strength, they would win. If they didn't have them and they were weak on them, they would lose or the deal would slip. Andy Whyte: And of course, you can guess where I'm going with this. Those elements became MEDDICC and the astute of the audience amongst us that would have read the show notes or looked at the title or seen my book will see that there's two Cs in my MEDDICC. That totals to seven letters, not six letters and you're absolutely right. It initially started with MEDDICC with one C, there's now two Cs. There's sometimes even a P and other letters in it. Andy Whyte: But I'll get into what it stands for now, if you like. The first letter is M and it stands for metrics. The high level version of this is I like to say, imagine yourself six months from now, sat down having a quarterly business review with your customer. You've won the deal, what would be the KPIs in which you're measuring the success of your solution with them? Those, whatever the answers to those are, it maybe improvements in conversion rate, it maybe efficiency improvements or anything depending on what the value is of what you sell, those are the metrics. Andy Whyte: The idea is you want to find those as early as possible in the deal through good discovery and kind of make them the headlines of your deal. That's the metrics. Of course, we can get into more detail on all of these as we go, if it helps you. Will Barron: Sure. Let's go each of them as quick as we can and then we'll dive into them. Because I don't think we have time to go into all of them. We'll perhaps pick on the ones that you feel most salespeople get wrong most often. Andy Whyte: Beautiful. Let's do that. The second letter is E, and it stands for economic buyer. This is the person who has the overall authority in your deal. This person can say no when others say yes and yes will never say no. They can create budget out of thin air. These are generally senior people. Andy Whyte: Then you've got the decision criteria. Now this one's really kind of easy, because it's kind of the clues in the name, it's the criteria in which the customer is going to base the decision. Very easy in a RFP, this one. It's like what are the things they're scoring you against? It can be more holistic things like partnerships and your roadmap or whether they like you even you as a company. And then the second D is decision process. This is really how are they going to make their decision? What's the process they're going to go in? What authorizations? What stakeholders? All that sort of stuff. Andy Whyte: And as I mentioned before, there's sometimes a P which stands for paper process, which is really just the contract, the NDA right through to getting stuff signed. And then this is an interesting one, we should definitely dive more into. It's I. It initially stood for identify the pain. I actually say there's three Is: identify the pain, indicate the pain and then implicate the pain. So we can perhaps go back into that one a bit more detail. Andy Whyte: And then you have the most important of all, the greatest CROs I've spoken to about MEDDICC will tell you this and that's champion. No champion, no deal. Big champion, big deal. And we can talk more about champions because I think it's probably the most used term to describe a customer, but it's also the most incorrectly used term. Andy Whyte: And then the last C which I have on my book, which is commonly implemented as well stands for competition. Now, everyone listened to this goes, “Oh, you don't need to explain that one, Andy.” But actually, it's a commonly misunderstood one because most people think of the competition as your rival solution, the other company out there that you normally don't like them and they're worse than you, of course and they're selling the same thing as you are, maybe a bit different. Obviously not as good as what most salespeople would say. “Competition in today's world where our customers have so much options and so much opportunity, is any one person or thing that is vying for the same budget or resources that you are.” – Andy White · [10:28] Andy Whyte: Now, the catch here is actually the competition. In today's world, where our customers have so much options and so much opportunity is any one person or thing that is vying for the same budget or resources that you are. That could be both or it could be three things, it could be the rival solution, it could be the customer themselves looking at what you do and saying, “Well, we can build that ourselves.” Or it could be something that's does a similar thing to what you do but a completely different solution or platform or something like that that could still the people that are going to implement your solution or steal the budget for it. That's it. That's MEDDICC in probably three or four minutes. Andy Describes the KPIs That Can Potentially Help in Identifying and Solving Customer Pain Points · [11:05] Will Barron: Perfect. Well, let's start at the top here because I feel like metrics are something that often get forgotten. We as salespeople will often go into a room virtually now I guess, these days, sit down with people and go, “Hey, you have this problem, we have this solution. You've got some budget, we've got something to suck the budget away from you.” I find typically there's not a lot of discussion of what does success look like for you. Will Barron: Do you care to solve this problem or not? Just because you've got this problem, oversells it. Or the place is on fire constantly. Everything is falling apart behind the scenes. But I don't care to solve all the issues because they don't drive revenue, for example. So with that said, what would be an example of a KPI of success if we're selling to the enterprise or we're trying to do a large deal here. What kind of KPIs would we be trying to pull out from the potential buyer? Andy Whyte: Sure. Well, I predominantly have worked in marketing technology, which is a good place to use as an example, because unlike so many other technologies out there, we are all consumers. We're generally always being marketed to, so we can kind of relate to these things. And I like to… In fact, the sales MEDDICC group who are a consultancy that implement MEDDICC, they break metrics into two: metrics ones and metric twos. “What happens so much for salespeople today, is they spot an opportunity, whether it's inbound or outbound and they know they can help a company and at the first chance they get, before they've even joined the Zoom call, they're straight away telling the customer about how ugly their baby i…

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1. No Awareness

2. Awareness

3. Exploring Solutions

4. Comparing Vendors

5. Purchase Decision

How Has the Buyer’s Journey Changed?

1. The Sales Cycle Is Longer Than Ever

2. Content Needs to Be More Strategic

3. “Education First, Salesmanship Second”

Mapping Your Buyer’s Journey

1. Which Step Do You Meet Them?

2. Where Have They Been?

3. What Pain Are They In?

4. What Is Their Next Step?

5. How Do You Get Them to the Next Stage?

Summary

1) Get Attention

A. Direct Subject Lines

B. News Subject Lines

C. How-to Subject Lines

D. Question Subject Lines

2) Demonstrate the Need

A. Current Reality

B. Desired Future Reality

C. Reality Bridge

3) Earn Their Trust

4) Call to Action

Pulling It All Together

What Is Territory Management?

5 Easy Steps To Create an Effective Sales Territory Plan

Step 1: Familiarize Yourself With Your Target Territory

Step 2: Do a Self-analysis

Step 3: Set Measurable Goals

Step 4: Chalk Out Your Territory Action Plan

Step 5: Effective Record-Keeping

Sales Territory Management Best Practices

A: Create a Contact Rotation Schedule

B: Don't Forget Your Current Accounts When Finding New Leads

C: Change With the Seasons

D: Align Your Sales Efforts With Other Departments

E: Refresh Your Sales Map

1. What Is SaaS?

2. Why Will You Be Selling It

A) It Brings In More Revenue

B) Allows for Automatic Upsells

C) Higher Business Valuations

3. Why This Shift Is Great

A) Long-Term Residual Commissions

B) An Easier Closing Cycle

C) Clearer Selling Points

What Are Discovery Questions?

Principles of Great Sales Discovery Questions

9 Qualifying Discovery Questions for Sales

1. “Tell Me About Your Company & Your Role”

2. “Tell Me About Your Upcoming Goals”

3. “What's Keeping You From Achieving These Goals?”

4. “What Happens if These Problems Go Unresolved?”

5. “Who Else Is Involved in Choosing a Solution?”

6. “If We Can Find the Right Solution for Your Problem, What Will It Take To Implement The Solution?”

7. “What Is Your Implementation Timeline?”

8. “What Is Your Approximate Budget?”

9. “How Will This Make Your Life Better?”

Learn To Ask the Right Questions

1. Reverse Engineering

2. Time Blocking

3. Paper To-Do

4. Phone Pruning

5. The Pomodoro Technique

6. Parkinson’s Law

7. Continuous Structure

8. The Power of “No”

Definition of the term ‘buying signals'