“It’s their vision of the deal, not yours. That’s what’s going to help make your opponent make an effective decision. Unfortunately, the more pressure you apply, the further they’re going to drift away from making a decision.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1629

What’s your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Jim!

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Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1624: Start With NO – Maybe is Not a Positive
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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 Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales, and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:

Jim Camp: Hi, everyone. This is Jim Camp. Happy to be back with you for another sales tip. Last week, we talked about verb-led questions and how that can actually force your client into saying the word maybe. They may not be ready to decide on anything yet, but the questions we ask make a difference. This brings up an important point for this week.

Remember, regardless of how you feel the deal is progressing, your opponent is making a decision and that decision is influenced by emotion. Although we all think decisions are based on facts and logic, there’s always emotion in the process, especially early on in the deal.

Here’s the tip for today, and I think this is in line with our previous episodes.

The best deals. The agreements that stick do not require you to close the deal. That’s right, it’s a big rule in our system, no closing. Closing applies pressure. It puts your opponent in an uncomfortable position. It also shows that you might need the deal. Closing, where you’re attempting to wrap things up, is dangerous, and it’s absolutely not necessary. Closing is where you attempt to get a yes, and it can and often does backfire. Saying things like, Can we move forward on this deal? Or, Are you ready to get started? Or, doesn’t this seem like it makes perfect sense for you and your company? Hopefully, you get my point.

Let me ask you this.

How do you feel personally when someone tries to close you? If you want to get a read on where you are in any deal, the best way to do that is to ask a simple interrogative-led question that will give you an understanding of where your opponent really sits on the decision. Some questions that might work are, How would you like to proceed? A simple question like, Where are we? Or, What have we overlooked so far? What would you like to happen next? Or, What would you like me to do? Those are simple questions that will help you gain vision and understand where they are in decision-making.

Remember, it’s their vision of the deal, not yours. That’s what’s going to help make your opponent make an effective decision. Unfortunately, the more pressure you apply, the further they’re going to drift away from making a decision. Until next time, take care, and thank you for listening.

Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1629. Once you’ve clicked over there to grab that download, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I think mentorship is huge and communicating with the people that you work with and just trying to be creative to understand.” – Shannon Hall in today’s Tip 1628

How do you deal with an untenable territory?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Shannon!

SentinelOne
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today I’ve got a clip from my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Shannon Hall, the top performer at SentinelOne. Listen to this:

Scott Ingram: How did you work through that situation when it’s like, I’m doing everything, but it’s just not here?

Shannon Hall: It was hard. It was really hard. I remember my manager at the time, him and I went over to start this new opportunity, and also amazing sales rep. We were so eager, so excited to get this going. It was hard. I remember taking walks around the block with him and just trying to dissect everything like, Are we missing something? And really being open with our leadership on what was happening. The funny thing is at the end of it, our chief operating officer at the time, he really recognized that, and he ended up making a move to a new organization that I ended up following too. He was like, I’m really sorry that this had happened. It was pretty cool. I think that was maybe the first time I went through something like that, and it ended up being validated from the organization that like, Yeah, actually, this isn’t really the direction that we’re trying to go. Sorry, you’re in this position. I think that’s where I had to lean in on, I don’t know, self-discovery a little bit and to be like, Okay, wait, am I going to stay in a position where I continue to bang my head around the wall? And then I’m seeing this around my peers, too. There might be that one lucky outlier, but I’m also realizing when it’s time to rip off the Band-Aid and not being scared to make a change. Even though I was so hopeful and optimistic that this was going to go well, just being uncomfortable and thinking like, Okay, like, this is not meant to be, and I got to make a change that’s going to better my life and my family. But it just was hard. It was just a difficult time.

Scott Ingram: Yeah. I mean, you’ve mentioned mentors a number of times in this. I wonder if you leaned on them because it feels like when you’re in it, when you’re in these situations, it’s like, Am I crazy? Because I think the challenge is getting to the truth of, Is it me? Am I responsible for this? Is there something that I’m missing that I can do that there’s a way that I can turn this away or turn this around and own it? Or is it just like, this is out of my control and I’m just in an untenable situation and I need to work through that, whether that’s I work with leadership when we find some type of a solution or I just have to go.

Shannon Hall: Yeah, I think mentorship is huge and communicating with the people that you work with and just trying to be creative to understand like, Oh, yeah, is this me or no? No, it’s not. And it is validating to even my engineer at the time. Such a great relationship. He was so amazing. I’m like, Oh, my gosh. If we are not putting this together as rapidly as we would like, when I think I was calling outside forces and just that introspective look to be like, Okay, actually, this is out of my control. Now I’m bringing this home, and I’m very unhappy, and it’s now affecting my family life. It’s, of course, affecting my paycheck. Just knowing with conversations with my friends that I know this isn’t probably where I’m meant to be. This is a great run. And we did make a lot of impact in the first year. This growth, and I’ve outgrown the other positions here, so it’s time to move on. It’s time to try something new and to have that belief in myself that you’re going to go and you’re going to have success again. This was a unique situation where it was humbling. They’re like, Well, wait a second. Normally, I’m going to figure this out, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Scott Ingram: Yeah, I think that’s so important, and just having that support system, having a network, having a community that you can lean into, one, just to help you see it for what it is. And if you do need help to get out and do something else because there’s not another opportunity there, you’re making sure that you have those kinds of resources as well.

Scott Ingram: For a link to my full interview with Shannon and to connect with her directly, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1628. On that page, you’ll also find a link to get your ticket to this year’s Sales Success Summit where Shannon will be joining us and you can surround yourself with some of the best of the best in sales. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“When you do not learn how to deal with these tyrants, they will continue to appear in your life.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1627

How do you deal with these tyrants and turn them into your teachers?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Are you ready for a great one? Today’s tip comes from Meshell Baker, our favorite sales confidence igniter and authentic selling crusader. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello. Today I want to talk to you about turning your tyrants into your teachers. Now this could be a boss, a colleague, someone in your personal life. This is an experience where it feels cruel and oppressive, and that person is exercising absolute authority and a power over you in a way that has a disregard of your rights and your feelings.

Now, what is a teacher?

A teacher is someone who helps you to learn. They help you to expand your knowledge. They help you to become more valuable in your life, in the work that you do.

So how do I take this person that is behaving in a tyrannical way and turn them into my teacher?

Number one, don’t let them see you sweat. The goal is to not be an emotional punching bag. What happens is people who are oppressive and cruel and wielding their authority, they look for punching bags. They need this to build their energy and feel good about themselves. And when you don’t let them see you sweat, when you’re confident, when you’re unwavering in your self-worth and your belief in your value, they will move on. Eventually, it’s not always immediately, and they will eventually move on.

Number two, listen actively. Instead of taking that irade and trying to show them your value or trying to explain or apologize or being overcommunicative about wanting them to understand and feel a certain way about you, just listen to them and respond with questions. Respond in a way that you are directing the conversation in a manner of the outcome that you desire. What do you want this conversation to end with? And it doesn’t mean about them changing their behavior because you will not change their behavior. Only thing you can do is hold and determine that this conversation is going to express your value to yourself regardless of who they are.

Be a role model. Again, this is not about you changing them and hoping that they see you behave in a certain way so that they will do it. Just instead of going and you know how they say, the dad kicks the kid and the kid goes and kicks the puppy, instead of going and treating other people that way, be the model of the boss or the person that you want to have in your life. You will be constructive, you will be kind, you will be patient, you will be gracious with everyone around you because this is a lesson for you. If you don’t like the way it feels when someone treats you that way, why would you then go and treat someone else the same way? Be the model of what you want to see in your life.

Number four, be a problem solver. Generally, what happens with people who are behaving this oppressive way is that they are unleashing their shortcomings, their problems, their overwhelm and their frustration on someone else instead of having a conversation with other people as a collaboration of how we can solve this problem together. When you proactively demonstrate how to turn conversations that are challenging into ones with favorable outcomes, again, be the model. But when you are looking to be the solution, you will actively start to have less of those people showing up because they know they can’t feed and fuel their lack of energy from you.

And humor, levity is one of the great diffusions of tension. Now you have to be able to use this sparingly and appropriately because sometimes this could fuel someone and make them even crazier if it’s used inappropriately. And again, the biggest thing I’ll say for you, for the next tip is, think about this person, because if this has been happening, it will continue to happen. What is the outcome you want to experience from this? How do you want to feel? How will you fuel your self-worth and your confidence?

And remember, as soon as you learn the lesson, you will get the blessing. You will move on. It doesn’t mean that that person is going to magically disappear. And I promise you, when you do not learn how to deal with these tyrants, they will continue to appear in your life. And when you do learn how to deal with them, it’s amazing how you will see less of them. Have a great day selling.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1627. Once you’ve done that, be sure to click back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Doing the work now is going to allow you to go for a great ride when the next wave comes.” – Scott Ingram in today’s Tip 1626

Are you building the right relationships and developing the skills to thrive in the next bull market?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Scott Ingram on LinkedIn
2023 Sales Success Summit
“Be Specific About What You Want” – Sales Success Stories Book – Sample Story #26
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. This last year has been a tough year for a lot of people in sales. I’m still seeing layoffs, and there are plenty of people who are struggling to perform the way they have in the past due to a variety of market conditions. Here’s what I want you to remember. Markets run in cycles. They go up and they go down, it’s just the natural order of things. Fortunately, they tend to go up a lot longer and a lot more than they go down. I actually ran across something I recorded about this time in 2019, 7 months or so before the Covid lockdowns. Listen to this:

It’s like I could see the future right? Now, we’re in the opposite situation. We’re in more of a down cycle now, but the good news is that they don’t last forever and when things get good, they usually get good for an extended period and you should prepare for that now. Are you building the right relationships and developing the skills you’ll need to really thrive in the next bull market? Now is the time to do the work. It may not be easy or particularly fun, you might have to stretch a little bit more to make the investments you really need to make in yourself, but think of it like paddling to catch a wave. Doing the work now is going to allow you to go for a great ride when the next wave comes. Are you ready?

And if you want to check out the full 9-minute story from my 2019 clip, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1626 and I’ll have that link for you there. Once you’ve clicked over there and listened to that, be sure to come back, for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“If you keep the business case tight and focus your effort on the benefits that matter, you can create a credible business case that’s easy to understand and drive to a close.” – Ian Campbell in today’s Tip 1625

How many benefits does your product deliver?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Ian!

The Value Sale: How to Prove ROI and Win More Deals Book
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The Value Sale
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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 Ian Campbell. Ian is the CEO of Nucleus Research and author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book “The Value Sale.” He’s trained 1000’s of sales professionals on ROI analysis and teaches at Babson College and Florida International University. In his spare time races Ferrari’s in the Ferrari Challenge series. Here he is:

Ian Campbell: Hi, everyone. I’m Ian Campbell. Your product may do a lot of things, but from a sales point of view, there are never more than five benefits that drive a deal. Two are good and three are not so good. That’s it. If you’re talking about more than five benefits when you’re in the heat of a deal, you’re probably making a mistake. In the more than 1,500 ROI case studies we’ve published in Nucleus Research, there are very few deals that hinge on more than two benefits.

Think of a customer relationship management solution. Most organizations deploy this type of solution to make their sales team more productive. Can a CRM system do more? Well, absolutely. But that productivity benefit for the sales team is the number one benefit. Everything else is tiny compared to that. If you focus your energy on helping your prospect understand the value of their one big benefit, you’ll make building the business case a lot easier.

Now wait, you say, There are a lot of benefits to the product I sell. Shouldn’t I include them all? Well, you can, but more can sometimes be a lot less when it comes to closing a deal. And that’s the point. You’re not trying to build the perfect business case, you’re trying to close a deal. A credible business case built on one or two benefits the prospect believes is a lot stronger than a dubious business case built on a pile of benefits. A higher ROI isn’t necessarily a better ROI.

Let’s go back to that CRM solution. If it can generate enough productivity benefit to justify a purchase, why confuse the message with a bunch of other benefits, some of which not everyone will believe. Without one benefit alone, you can justify the purchase and close the deal. Do that.

Think about your last few deals. How many benefits really drove the decision? If you keep the business case tight and focus your effort on the benefits that matter, you can create a credible business case that’s easy to understand and drive to a close. And ultimately, closing the deal is what you’re trying to do. Thanks for listening.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Ian and check out his book “The Value Sale”, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1625. Once you’ve been over there, be sure to come right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Don’t ask a question that can lead to a response of maybe.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1619

Do you ask a question that can lead to a response of maybe?

Join the conversation below and be sure to check out the links!

Jim Camp on LinkedIn
Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1619: Start with NO – Let Go of Results
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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 Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales, and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. His coaching expertise is in sales, negotiations, and leadership. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:

Jim Camp: Hi, everyone. This is Jim Camp here again bringing you another sales tip. Last week, we talked about letting go of results and focusing on what we can manage our activity and our behavior. Today, I want to focus on how you perceive the word maybe. What do you do when you hear the word maybe? A maybe is not a positive event. In our system at best, we refer to maybe as simply a no for now. Honestly, those we coach would rather hear no than the word maybe.

We know why people say no, there’s only four reasons. With a maybe, honestly, there’s nothing to get excited about. A maybe is a non-decision. In fact, if you’ve prematurely pushed to close the deal, you may have forced your opponent in the saying the word maybe. At least with a no, you can decide to go further. You could decide to discover what the real problems are. You can gather more vision and you can help your potential clients see the opportunities that are provided by your solution. Or with a no, you can simply move on. You can decide whether or not the negotiation ends or whether or not you continue.

Here’s a tip for today.

Don’t ask a question that can lead to a response of maybe. We’ll cover more about our behaviors in future episodes, but this one is important and I want to get to it right away. If you ask a verb-led question, you actually open yourself up to three potential responses: yes, no, or maybe. Questions like, will you, can you, do you see that this might be able to help you? Or is this something that you might be interested in? You get the picture. Verb-led questions box your opponent into three limited responses. In reality, using these types of questions can be useful if you’re confirming something, but it’s not conducive to building vision with your opponent.

Look, as an example, I know my LinkedIn profile needs work, and I’m very appreciative of everybody reaching out to me now that I’m retiring from the military and getting back into coaching. But you would be shocked at the number of emails I receive that actually lead with a verb-led question. For example, Jim, if I can help you generate higher returns, is this something you’re interested in? Think about that question. Is this something you’re interested in? My mind immediately shifts to, well, first of all, I don’t know who this person is. I appreciate their efforts, but I don’t know, maybe. It depends. It depends on numerous things.

Conversely, if they were to say, Jim, how comfortable are you with your LinkedIn page? What changes do you and your company face in marketing? How can we help you with both? I look forward to hearing from you. If I’m being honest, that’s the person I want to talk to. I want to talk to somebody that’s worried about my world, that’s willing to hear what I have to say, but is not applying pressure to me to make an immediate decision by using a verb-led question. The verb-led question doesn’t work at the beginning or anywhere in the negotiation unless you know the answer to that question before you ask it. I hope you found this helpful, and I promise I’ll be back with more sales tips. Take care.

Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1624. Once you’ve clicked over there to grab that download, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“I think for myself, it was more important to stay consistent and reduce burnout.” – Carter Davey in today’s Tip 1623

How do you stay consistent and avoid burnout?

Join the conversation below and check out the full interview with Carter!

Dingus & Zazzy
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167: Constantly Iterating, Crafting Messaging & Avoiding Burnout with Dingus & Zazzy’s Carter Davey
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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 in the form of a clip from my most recent interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Carter Davey in episode 167. Give a listen to this:

Carter Davey: And then typically five o’clock hits, and I want to cut it off there. Throughout the routine is I’ve found, if I leave myself some room, I’ll sit there until 9 PM. I’ll find things to do, and I’ll find new people to follow up with from God knows how long ago. 5 o’clock hits, I’m out of the office. Whether that’s going to the gym right after work or just something that is not related at all to work to reset my mind before I get home, I really value not taking that home with me and being able to unplug when I can.

Scott Ingram: How big of an ingredient is that to the anti-burnout piece of the cutoff at 5 o’clock?

Carter Davey: Yeah, for myself has been, I think, really important. I’m one of those people that regardless of whether I make that distinction at 5 o’clock and get out of the office and try and get it out of my mind, I’m thinking of my discovery calls, I’m thinking of my closing calls, I’m thinking about these things constantly. But as long as it’s not in front of my face, it has been a game-changer for myself just in terms of my routine around health and making sure I can stay active. Because when I was staying at the office till 9 o’clock at night, just following up on things, getting prepared for the next day, I wouldn’t catch the gym. I’m not an early morning person. I’m not somebody who can get there at 5. I know myself too well. That it was key for me.

Scott Ingram: At what point did you make that shift? And how did you do it? Because that’s often not easy. If you’re used to just continuing to go and go and go, and now you’re like, Nope, I’m just going to stop.

Carter Davey: I should say it wasn’t a hard line in the sand that one day I just did it. I think it was reducing from five nights a week or working on the weekends, staying late every day, and getting in early. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of success in that. But I think for myself, it was more important to stay consistent and reduce burnout. It was a slow burn over time where I think it really just started as I’d catch myself at about 5:15 going. None of these things are too important to make sure that I’m closing deals. Let’s get home, let’s get more rest, let’s get cut off. Then over time, I just found that I started doing that every day and it was a radical shift in my mood, my ability, and really just how I function through life.

Scott Ingram: Did you see a difference in your results?

Carter Davey: Interestingly enough, yes. I think that in terms of consistency has been something that I think I’m very proud of. But there are the months that just sometimes skyrocket up and it’s like, Hey, what did I do differently? Was it opportunity? Was it myself? Where can I look at those things? I found that the majority of times we did that because we look at these things monthly, but not quarterly. It’s fairly fast-paced for us. But those were a lot of the times where I felt like I did separate myself a little bit more. I even find my ability, and maybe it’s just something that I think of, and I can’t tell you the numbers, but I can tell ever since I did that, I do feel a lot more confident even in my pitch and closing. It’s been a big shift in results now.

Scott Ingram: For links to my full interview and to connect with Carter, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1623. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Focus on the impact that you’re having and you will always have the income.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1622

Are you income-focused or impact-focused?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Meshell!

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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 Meshell Baker, our favorite sales confidence igniter and authentic selling crusader. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello. Today, I want to ask you a question. Are you income-focused or impact-focused? The reason I ask this is that there are two different outcomes of being a seller and a sales leader. Let me start with the definition of income. Income is money received, especially on a regular basis for work or investments. Impact is the action of an object coming forcibly into contact with another or having a strong effect on someone.

Why is this important?

When you’re income-focused, you are looking at the singular outcome of producing transactions. Every time you are dealing with some, you’re asking yourself the question of, How can I get someone to buy or make a purchase? When you’re impact-focused, you are looking at creating valuable experiences for your prospects and clients, and you’re asking the question of, How can I make this exchange memorable?

Now, there’s four things that will happen when you’re income-focused. You will go into either flight where you will start to run when it doesn’t work up, so you’ll stop following up, you’ll stop making phone calls, you’ll start avoiding people because it’s not working and your mind now only sees the fear. It feels the fear and it focuses on the fear.

You’re going to fight where you become and aggressive and you’ll start leaping and jumping straight into the part of the presentation where you’re getting people to buy and you are conjoling and trying to convince and you’re over-talking.

And then there’s three. You’ll freeze. And freeze means that you can’t do anything. You don’t have answers, you don’t remember, you’re living in the can’ts and won’ts and don’ts, and then you can only stick to tightly to a script and not go out of it. You lose yourself and you freeze in the face of fear. Fon means that you become overly willing to do things for your clients by offering discounts and perks, and you’re bending over backwards, you’re faunting on them.

And all of that is focused on getting income. The outcome and the result is, I want a transaction, so your mind is singularly focused. So when things don’t go your way, your mind does not elaborate or create or imagine or innovate for you in any way because all it does is creates fear.

Now, the other way, as I mentioned, is the impact focus. So when you’re impact-focused, you are looking at how to create a relationship. You’re looking at the length of time of being able to do business, meaning if they don’t do business today, you can do business tomorrow. You’re looking at the possibility of referrals, of recommendations, of repeat business. You are creating an experience so that you become a go-to for that prospect and that client. This will also give you four different outcomes.

The first one is a positive outcome. When you feel like the sales call or the presentation is not going your way, you’re more likely to visualize in those moments of and ask yourself, What can I ask on work? What can I say here? Your mind will start to remind you of all the little tips, tools, tricks, trades that you have that you can bring into those moments in that presentation or that sales call, and you will stay calm in the face of things possibly not going that way. Again, because your focus is on creating a valuable experience, you are not as worried about not getting the transaction. You’re more focused on ensuring that no matter what happens, they feel valued and valued.

Practice listening. You will actually begin to practice your listening when you are in impact focus because you know that you can hear. We have two ears to hear, one mouth to speak. In the listening and asking questions, you can guide your clients back to the original thoughts, and you will also start to uncover if maybe there was objections that you didn’t deal with, some things that weren’t brought up initially, you can hear them because now you’re listening and you’re asking better questions instead of overtalking, trying to convince them.

Then you’ll look at the product and service that you have to see. How has this appealed? Is this really what they need? Maybe it’s not the right time. Maybe there’s something else that’s better. But you will look at how your product and service is really helping to solve for that client.

And the last P is perks. Remembering the perks of being a salesperson. A salesperson earns a great living. You get to work outdoors remotely. Your time is yours. You can avoid physical, strenuous work. You get to a variety of things that you get to do. You get to make your own hours. You can create your own income. There are a lot of perks of being a salesperson, and part of it is when you create these relationships, you will have a pipeline that works in your favor. Instead of constantly trying to go out and hunt, you will harvest more great opportunities.

So just remember, focus on the impact that you’re having and you will always have the income. Have a great day selling.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell for more Impact, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1622. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The key learnings from this deal and how you can 10X both with the existing customer as well as to capture additional similar customers.” – Andrew Kappel in today’s Tip 1621

How’s your deal?

Join the conversation below and be sure to check out the links!

Andrew Kappel on LinkedIn
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How the Deal was Done Podcast
Jerry Pharr’s LinkedIn Post
1529: HTDWD – How The Deal Was Done

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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 Kappel. Andrew is a Principal Consultant at Benchmark Signal Consulting. Specializing in Sales Optimization and Acceleration Projects for Gong and HubSpot clients. He has been a listener of Sales Success Stories podcast since 2017, and just recently created the How the Deal was Done Podcast. Here he is:

Andrew Kappel: Ring the bell, How the deal was done? Customer win stories. These are all the same or similar ways to democratize sales excellence across your organization. The format is, after a big deal gets done, the sales rep or one of the sales leaders can gather some of the key deal information. You can break it down by the background of the deal, the industry, deal size, deal type, how long the deal took, as well as information on your champion, executive sponsor, use case, and competitors. Ideally, this information can be pulled automatically from your CRM system. Then we’ll get to the good information.

Just a couple of questions on how the deal was done. You have a question on the introduction, how it got started, why the customer kicked off an evaluation to change their business process. You can highlight a couple of the detours or challenges, and then, of course, covering the internal colleagues and team members who helped to overcome those challenges in that story format. Here you can also call out if you have any external partners or other key stakeholders who help get the deal unstuck or over the line.

And then lastly, how the deal was closed. And as Scott Ingram says, what’s next? So the key learnings from this deal and how you can 10X both with the existing customer as well as to capture additional similar customers.

For resources, we actually put together a template, simple Google Doc template that you can copy and edit, and use internally, whether you are an account executive, an enablement manager, or a CRO. I also have a couple of other resources and links that you can capture in the show notes. I actually recently started a podcast called How the Deal was Done, deal stories podcast where we interview top sellers and leaders in a short form, rapid style interview, and capture and hear about some of their biggest, most memorable deals.

There’s an excellent LinkedIn post from an enablement thought leader, Jerry Pharr. He shares best practices for sales and enablement leaders to capture customer win stories.

And lastly, Scott Ingram, the host of Sales Success Stories and the creator of Daily Sales Tips, he shared a similar post a couple of months back, How the deal was done. Sales Tip 1529. So I also recommend taking a look at that one. Take care and all the best.

Scott Ingram: For links to all of those resources that Andrew mentioned, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1621. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Show a positive ROI, and your prospect might drive themselves through the sales funnel.” – Ian Campbell in today’s Tip 1620

How do you calculate ROI?

Join the conversation below and be sure to check out the links!

The Value Sale: How to Prove ROI and Win More Deals Book
Nucleus Research
The Value Sale
Ian Campbell on LinkedIn
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Ian Campbell. Ian is the CEO of Nucleus Research and author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book “The Value Sale.” He’s trained 1000’s of sales professionals on ROI analysis and teaches at Babson College and Florida International University. In his spare time Ian races Ferrari’s in the Ferrari Challenge series. Here he is:

Ian Campbell: Hi, everyone. I’m Ian Campbell. It’s a tight market, and more organizations require a financial justification to get budget approval. Closing a deal is likely to mean generating a business case that shows the prospect the return on investment they’ll receive. On the bright side, it’s hard to delay a decision when you’re getting a positive ROI. Show a positive ROI, and your prospect might drive themselves through the sales funnel.

Now, that might be a bit optimistic, but there’s no question, every decision-maker wants to know the decision they’re making is worth it for the organization. But how do you calculate ROI? There’s a lot on this topic, but it’s not as hard as it seems. You just need to break it down into a few very easy steps.

First, ROI is a calculation you already know. If you’ve ever put money in a bank, you know what ROI is. It’s the rate you’re receiving on your deposit. Put $100 in, and if you get $5 back a year, you know intuitively you’re getting a 5% ROI on that $100 investment. It’s not more complicated than that.

So, to calculate ROI, you need to know how much your prospect is spending. That’s the cost of your solution and how much return your prospect will receive. That’s their annual benefits less their annual costs. The cost side is relatively straightforward. You probably know how much you’re charging the customer and can write those numbers down. The benefits are the tough part.

How do you get the customer to understand the benefits they’re going to receive from your product? Well, it’s easy. Just ask. Hold on, you say. That seems a little too simple to work. Well, not if we create a framework that makes it easier for us to understand and quantify their answers. Customers are going to give you a range of answers for why they are considering your solution. It could seem like a big list, and probably is. But it’s not a big list if you put each of these answers into one of three buckets.

These three buckets are increased productivity, reduce cost, or, as a byproduct of that, increase profit. That’s it. Those are the three quantifiable benefits you can deliver. The customer may list a lot of reasons why they’re looking at your product, but ultimately, you can only do three things for them increase productivity, reduce cost, or, as a byproduct of those two, increase profits. That’s all.

When your prospect says, for example, they want to help their sales reps track customer contacts, you point out that your CRM solution will increase their productivity by allowing them to keep a contact list. Increase productivity? When you point out your solution is delivered through the cloud, you also point out how it will reduce their technology costs, take the benefits they mention and link them to the quantifiable framework of increased productivity, reduced cost, or as a last resort, increase profits.

Now, we’ve made the ROI effort a lot easier. We’ve taken a broad set of benefits and put them into categories we can tackle. There’s no magic to that process, but it’s a lot easier to make a rational estimate around increased productivity and reduced costs than a broad customer contact list.

Now, there are still a few more steps you’ll need to take to calculate ROI, but you’ve come a long way to generating a business case that includes a believable ROI number by putting your prospect ideas into quantifiable buckets. Thanks for listening.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Ian and check his book “The Value Sale:”, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1620. Once you’ve been over there, be sure to come right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!