“Be as easy as possible to work with. Don’t make their lives difficult and just be super, super flexible so they want to continue to work with you.” – Andrew Barbuto in today’s Tip 1792
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast, and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Andrew Barbuto. Andrew is a seasoned digital media sales professional with a proven track record of winning new business and building long-term customer relationships. Over the last 8 years, he has been a top-producing salesperson at two leading digital media companies, closing hundreds of services and software deals to agencies and advertisers worth over $250 million in revenue. Here he is:
Andrew Barbuto: Today’s tip I’m going to talk about is to be as easy as possible to work with. So often customers want to work with vendors, but they make it extremely difficult to do so, whether that be through very specific requirements for their contract, having extraordinarily high minimums, or just not moving as quickly as they would like to.
So one of the first things that I used to do when I first started in sales was I would ask a prospect, what budget do you expect to be able to spend next year? And then based on the budget they gave me, I would use that as the minimum spend level. However, I was finding there was a gap between what prospects told me they could spend next year and what they would be willing to guarantee they could spend next year. And so what was happening was that my deals were getting stalled.
And so once I realized this was happening, I spoke to one of my colleagues, explained the situation, and what he told me was that he uses the minimum spend level on every single contract. And what he found was that there was really no impact as to what the client ultimately ended up spending. So once I took his advice, I lowered the minimums so that way, in every single contract, regardless of how big I thought the opportunity was, I used our minimum spend level. And when I started doing that, deals started closing much, much faster. And the reason for that was that it just serves as a barrier to entry. Ultimately, the client is going to spend what they’re going to spend, and you just need to do what you can do to get their signature on the contract.
What your minimum spend level really has no indication as to what the client ultimately ends up spending and can just serve as hesitations for the client. Am I going to be able to spend this amount? This seems like a bigger amount. When I first signed it, it seemed like it was more realistic. But now that it’s real, it feels like it could be a little bit out of my range. What happens if I don’t hit it? These are all thoughts that go through your client’s heads.
Another way that it’s important to be flexible to work together is to have multiple partnership options. Not every prospect is a one-size-fits-all. Some prospects are going to have different needs than others. I’m very fortunate that I work at a company where we have multiple partnership options. And so I always start my calls by laying out what those are. We have different partnership options. This partnership model makes sense if you have these needs, this partnership model makes sense if you have these needs, and this one for these needs.
What do you think makes most sense for you? Then, based on what they tell me, I spend the remainder of the conversation focusing exclusively on that partnership model. The point is that we have options for people at all different skill levels and with all different sorts of resources when you are partnering with customers.
Be very quick with your responses. Listen very diligently and provide customized proposals based on what they tell you. You should never provide a proposal that’s outside of scope without explicitly getting their permission to do so. If anything, this is just going to turn them off and have them feel like you’re not listening to them.
The other factor is the contract terms. We all work in sales, we understand that we have to get the best terms for our company. At the same time, if you work in an industry like I do, they have many different options. I work in a commoditized space. It’s very competitive. So I always try to be the easiest possible partner to work with. And I’m also always pushing for flexibility whenever needed to get the deal over the finish line.
The last thing I’ll speak about is comparisons versus other competitors. I highly recommend that during the sales process, at some point, you ask your prospect, Are we going to be competing against any other options? If so, what is the main criteria your decision is going to be based on? Once you’ve determined what that criteria is and if they’re considering any other competitors of yours, I put myself in the driver’s seat and say, Hey, I understand there’s multiple decision-makers that are likely involved in this. I want to make your life as easy as possible. I’m sure that you have to do a comparison between us and any of our competitors. If you give me the of the competitors you’re also considering, I’m happy to put together a comparison between us and them. I’ll break down very clearly what are our strengths, what are their strengths, and I’ll make sure to tie that to what your ultimate objectives are and how are you going to be basing this decision.
By taking the initiative of putting together this comparison, you’re putting yourself in the driver’s seat. You’re not leaving it up to them to find out, and you’re definitely not leaving it up to your competitors. I always try to make myself an asset to my champion when they’re trying to get this over the finish. Once I get down to the contract negotiation phase, I always look at it as if we’re on the same team. I do everything I can to get this over the finish line by pushing internally, and I expect the same from them. To wrap it up, be as easy as possible to work with. Don’t make their lives difficult and just be super, super flexible so they want to continue to work with you. They have a great customer experience and they keep coming back.
Scott Ingram: To learn more about Andrew, join the waitlist for his book, and receive a script to secure next steps in meetings, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1792. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!