“If you can put something like that really well-articulated memo, this is why your brand needs to change and here’s how we’re going to do it. I think that can be almost more effective than a really good presentation.” – Brandon Fluharty in today’s Tip 368
Are you using an executive memo?
Join the conversation below and learn more about Brandon!
Brandon Fluharty on LinkedIn
Brandon Fluharty on Sales Success Stories Interview
Building an $11M a Year Business in Less Than 24 Months
Seven Lessons from Reaching the Seven Figure Earners Club in SaaS Sales
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Yesterday over on the Sales Success Stories podcast I released one of my new favorite interview episodes featuring Brandon Fluharty from LivePerson. Brandon is a member of the elite 7 figure earners club and this one idea basically blew my mind and I came back to it a couple of times over the course of our hour and a 45-minute interview, and it kept getting more interesting. Here’s a clip with Brandon describing the concept and what it can do:
Brandon Fluharty: I’m a big, big believer in writing. I think another thing that’s been helpful, it’s not that you have to use a specific app for this, but just one thing that we do that I was introduced here at LivePerson and it was brought to us from any folks who came over from Amazon. Amazon’s big believer in memos and it can get a little intimidating at first when you’re bombarded with memos, but I think it’s really important that when you can write out and articulate a message, I think it helps to crystallize it for you personally, but also it helps to, helps the audience to anchor to what you’re trying to talk about and plan and discuss and work on.
So one thing that I’ve started to do with my prospective clients is actually anchored to an executive memo and I tried to write it like a creative story and sort of use illustrative language. Like that’s exciting. Like you know, what your brand could look like in three years. This is how we can achieve that. Here are the benefits. Here are the resources required to get this transformation off the ground. And I find that it’s a really kind of going back to the entrepreneur mindsets, like if you can craft a really good memo at the sort of the executive D-Level, like it’s shorter than six, seven, maybe in less than five minutes that you can articulate in detail, but really thoughtful and concise. It’s a hard balance, but if you can kind of do both, it’s a great way to earn the respect and the admiration and you almost just make your executive sponsor on the other side, you make their life easier because you’ve thought through it. Because that’s what they have to articulate to the ultimate signer. There’s a kind of needs sign off on this big transformation from their CFO or their COO or their CEO. If you can put something like that really well-articulated memo, this is why your brand needs to change and here’s how we’re going to do it. I think that can be almost more effective than a really good presentation.
I have found that it’s just a great way to before you get to the proposal stage, it’s almost the template for your proposal. It keeps both sides aligned. Oh, remember when we talked about this, we sort of signed off on this jointly. This is what it’s going to need from a resource perspective or these are the results that we’re going for. We’re talking about enhancing the customer experience, not just saving on operating expenses. We agreed to that, right? Has something changed? So it just keeps both parties anchored throughout the sales process and especially for strategic enterprise deals. We know, you know, this is not a three month; you know, open the door, you’ll get the deal done in, in 60-90 days. It’s just not going to happen. You know, these are long sales cycles, so using an executive memo I think is a great, it’s certainly been a great resource for me that’s been really effective.
Scott Ingram: I certainly hope you’ll go check out my full massive interview with Brandon on the Sales Success Stories podcast, but if you’re looking for something that you can digest a little quicker. Click over to DailySales.Tips/368 where I’ll have links for you to two articles that Brandon wrote on LinkedIn. The first titled Seven Lessons from Reaching the Seven Figure Earners Club in SAAS Sales and the second is Building an $11M a Year Business in Less Than 24 Months. Again links to those and to connect with Brandon at DailySales.Tips/368
Then be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!