“I would encourage you to get as good as you can at truly acknowledging and stopping for the yellow and the red lights.” – Jennifer Colosimo in today’s Tip 1159

What’s your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and go check out the links!

FranklinCovey
FranklinCovey on LinkedIn
FranklinCovey on Instagram
Jennifer Colosimo on LinkedIn
Strikingly Different Selling: 6 Vital Skills to Stand Out and Sell More

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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 Jennifer Colosimo. Jennifer co-authored Strikingly Different Selling and Great Work, Great Career with leadership expert Stephen R. Covey. As president of FranklinCovey’s enterprise division, she is accountable for profitable growth in over 160 countries. She’s led teams in consulting, global operations, learning and development, CSR, and IT at FranklinCovey, Accenture, and DaVita, and served as a COO, CLO, and VP of Wisdom. Here she is:

Jennifer Colosimo: Some sales pursuits feel like a late-night drive where we mostly encounter intersections with green traffic lights. It’s easy drive. Others feel like a midday drive. And you’ve got some city streets. We see less green and much more yellow and red. And some are rush hour grind where we slog through a constant stream of yellow and red lights.

I’m guessing by now you know what I mean by using this metaphor of selling traffic lights. There’s three different colors. There’s green, client questions, and minor concerns that we can easily answer. We can resolve them. We can keep moving, moving forward. And then there’s yellow and red. Big pushback, challenges, objections. They slow us down or bring us to a big stop. We’ve all been buyers as well as sellers, so we know it’s natural and normal to ask questions. And it’s never a good idea in sales to ignore those questions that are symbolically yellow or red lights. Don’t ignore them. Don’t go around them. Don’t accelerate through them. Slow down.

So there’s three steps when you’ve got a yellow or a red light. First, acknowledge. And I’ll invest most of the time talking about acknowledgment understanding, which has a whole skill set in and of itself for solution selling and resolving, if possible. When you acknowledge what I mean by that is genuinely with authentic empathy. Like, I really believe this is a valid question, concern, or challenge, not in what can be perceived as in a trite way like, I understand or yes, I appreciate that and moving on.

Acknowledging with authentic empathy means you don’t run the light. You don’t immediately respond, answer, or defend, which is really what most salespeople do. They often immediately just respond, answer, defend. I’m going to run this light. With a yellow or red light, this approach tends to shut down dialogue and you won’t even get to understanding, which means you could solve a problem that actually isn’t even the problem to solve, if you don’t go any deeper.

So sometimes these red lights are also they hit us emotionally. I completely disagree. You’re way off the mark. It’s too expensive and your physical body can react. Sometimes impacting breathing. Sometimes oxygen doesn’t flow to your brain. Your reptilian brain takes over. It’s hard to be authentic empathic if you feel attacked with emotion.

So number one, breathe. Practice responding to the types of objections that you get and practice some examples of acknowledging. So a genuine thank you for raising that concern. Let’s slow down and talk about it. I appreciate you being upfront that could have been something we skipped. May I ask a few questions to make sure I understand the concern?

Here’s a key point.

Acknowledging does not mean we agree. Now, of course, then you have to get to understanding. You have to get to resolution whole other skill sets. But I would encourage you to get as good as you can at truly acknowledging and stopping for the yellow and the red lights.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Jennifer and to pick up a copy of her book, “Strikingly Different Selling: 6 Vital Skills to Stand Out and Sell More,” just click over to DailySales.Tips/1159.

Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The whole point of the disco call is to reduce time and either qualify or disqualify the customer.” – Alex Young in today’s Tip 1158

How do you run your discovery call?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

Alex Young on Youtube
The Human Performance Podcast

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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 Alex Young. Alex is a surgeon turned human performance expert, who specializes in revolutionizing the way people learn, train, and perform through immersive tech. His startup, Virti, enables organizations to build VR/AR tools to improve how employees learn skills. Virti was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021. Here’s Alex:

Alex Young: Hey salespeople, discovery calls are the perfect time to act like a doctor and diagnose your prospect’s needs and probe their pain to set up your solution. The rule of thumb for a discovery call should always be to listen more than you talk. Remember, at least 50% of your prospects aren’t a good fit for what you’re selling. And the whole point of the disco call is for you to learn as much about the prospect as possible. With a successful discovery call centering the conversation around the prospect, their pain points, and how your solution will help them. This mindset will then give you more insight to effectively qualify or disqualify them.

Now, numerous studies have shown the power of the talk to listen ratio. SalesHacker found that the highest yielding B2B sales conversations hovered around a 43% to 57% talk to listen ratio, with the top-performing salespeople speaking even less than this. The best way to make sure your prospect talks more than you do is to ask questions, but you need to make sure that they are the right questions. Instead of using rapid-fire questions at your prospect right from the start, you should aim to distribute your questions evenly across the sales call with more open questions asked at the beginning. Your goal is to use these open-end sales questions that involve in-depth explanations so you can grasp as much information as possible to tailor your sales pitch around the needs of the customer. Remember, various studies have shown the top reasons why deals fall apart, being budget, timing and decision making, which tells you that you need to address these issues sooner rather than later.

Now, if the prospect is a good fit, you’ll understand their pain points and like a doctor, prescribe your offering as the ideal solution. If you can’t do this, then your solution probably isn’t the right fit. But don’t beat yourself up too much because remember, the whole point of the disco call is to reduce time and either qualify or disqualify the customer. And if you’re disqualifying people, that’s fine too. Since you’ve listened to the prospect speak about their pain points for a large portion of the call, you’re now equipped with the information you need to explain why and how your solution will solve these problems for them. Connect your prospect’s pain points to specific features and explain how your solution will solve these. This is the perfect time to offer up case studies or testimonials of similar companies that struggled with similar issues but have since solved them by using your solution. Relate the case studies to the issues discussed, discuss the ROI customers are currently achieving, and have these close by for reference.

Now, not all prospects will follow along with your questions even if you take control of the conversation. It’s your job to guide the prospect through the call, extracting key information that allows you to offer insight and see if you can help them. This is exactly what doctors do in a clinic environment where they have limited amounts of time to see a huge amount of patients and make sure they get them through to the correct treatment options. Common objections that customers might use to derail your conversation can be answered using stock phrases that get them back on track.

For example, a common one is when a customer or prospect asks, I just want to get to the point and know the price well. To counteract this, you can have a stock phrase such as we offer a range of pricing options which would tailor to your needs. So if it’s okay, I’d like to ask you a few more questions before we get going through the price. This allows you to spend time discussing the value of your offering and making sure that it resonates with the needs of the customer and that they’re fully qualified before you move things towards pricing.

Scott Ingram: For links to subscribe to Alex’s YouTube channel and podcast, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1158 and we’ll have both of those links for you. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Don’t sell a functional product or just a number of hours. Sell value, sell hope, sell a better future. In other words, sell based on emotions.” – Mark Schenkius in today’s Tip 1157

What is your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Mark!

ROI 10
The Other Side of Sales
Mark Schenkius 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 Mark Schenkius. Mark is the founder of ROI 10 where he helps sales professionals get better at dealing with buyers. He’s also the author of “The Other Side of Sales,” where he shares his perspective after many years in procurement. Here he is:

Mark Schenkius: I have been working in buying or procurement for over 17 years and about 4 years ago I set up my own company providing strategy and negotiation training to sales professionals.

This meant that from one day to the other, I had to look after sales myself as well. Having always sat on the other side of the table, one could assume I have some interesting insights.

And I do. Here they are:

First, when I got started, I assumed selling would be easy. After all, I knew I had a great service to sell so the customers would be lining up to work with me. Boy, was I wrong?

Fact is that sales is hard work, but most of all, it’s all about being consistent and persistent. Nobody buys from a person they don’t know, like, or trust. It takes time to build a relationship; it takes time to build trust. Don’t be demotivated, keep ongoing. If not now, then perhaps later. For some of my customers, it took years to start a cooperation. And you know what, that’s fine. They are ready when they are ready. Not sooner. Remember that it’s not business-to-business, it’s always human-to-human.

Secondly, I found out I hate cold sales. I just find it extremely uncomfortable. After reflecting on it, I decided there are 3 options here: either I learn how to do it, I could outsource it, or I could stop doing it. I tried option 2, however, reverted back to option 3 eventually. I decided to put my energy into my warm and semi-warm relationship-building skills. I made an active decision to postpone learning more about the art of cold calling.

Thirdly, I always think from a buyer’s perspective when dealing with my customers. When I meet with a potential client, I rarely have a prepared slide-deck. As a buyer, I know how annoying that was, because these slides always focused on them and never on me as a buyer.

Instead, I listen and ask questions. That’s because I first need to identify what problem they have. Secondly, I’ll show them what potential solution I have for them. This also means I sometimes say ‘no’ to potential customers, because I know they are better off working with somebody else. But I also know that I can truly help the customers I am working with. The tip here is to first think what’s in it for them? And secondly to think what’s in it for me.

So, rather than selling my services, I try to position myself into the shoes of the buyer. In some cases, this led to interesting discussions. I participated in an RFP process for 2 trainings. At one point, I was invited for a 30 min call with the team, and I challenged one of the 2 trainings, asking them why they actually needed that. After a series of questions and answers it turned out they didn’t and they appreciated the candid conversation. I will be running the first virtual training with them shortly.

The final tip is that it’s never about the cost, but always about the value you bring. The famous marketeer Freddy Heineken used to say: “I don’t sell beer, I sell parties”. That’s exactly what you should do too. Don’t sell a functional product or just a number of hours. Sell value, sell hope, sell a better future. In other words, sell based on emotions.

That’s it for now. Happy negotiations everyone!

Scott Ingram: For more insights from the professional buyer’s perspective. Check out Mark’s book: “The Other Side of Sales,” and as always we’ve got links for you at DailySales.Tips/1157.

Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The real competitor is yourself and always focus on how can we constantly look at ways to get better.” – Darren Mitchell in today’s Tip 1156

Who really is your competition?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Darren!

Darren Mitchell Website
Darren Mitchell on LinkedIn
The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast on Apple Podcast
The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast on Spotify

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 Darren Mitchell and comes with my apologies, because apparently he originally sent this to me quite some time ago. Darren is the host of The Exceptional Sales Leader Podcast, he’s committed to developing exceptional sales leaders & teams, who drive consistent, sustainable & replicable results. He mentors & coaches Sales Leaders 1:1 and facilitates engaging and interactive workshops to unleash the potential of sales leaders & their teams. Here he is:

Darren Mitchell: In Today’s Daily Sales Tip, let’s talk about who really is your competition. Now, I love the Olympic Games. We just had Tokyo 2020 play out in 2021, and many people point to gold medalists or those finishing on the podium as an example of excellence. But we can’t ignore the athletes who have delivered personal best performances in their chosen sport and not necessarily reach the level of gold, silver, or bronze medalists.

Now, is it true that these athletes ideally would love to be sitting on a podium with one of those medals around their neck? Absolutely. But the Olympics is not necessarily about simply winning. It is about pursuit of excellence. And so it is in sales. Too many salespeople, too many sales leaders, and certainly too many organizations focus far too much attention on the competition. And they compare themselves to them. And this is where the best practice comes in or the best product comes in. Best service. And often they try to actually elevate themselves against other people. And companies do this when they elevate themselves against different organizations to try and convince customers as to why they should do business with them. They often look at not being in a competition as equaling failure. They don’t necessarily understand that the real competition is actually themselves.

Now, what do exceptional sales teams, exceptional sales leaders, and exceptional sales organizations do? They focus on what they have control over. So they live from an internal locus of control. They don’t concern themselves with their competition. Yes, they’re aware of their competition, and they might look at their competition as benchmarks and take their strategies and understand where they’re placed in the marketplace. But they don’t measure themselves against their competition and have a win-loss ratio. They focus on how can we get better. They challenge themselves and their team to set brand new benchmarks every single day. And they look at objectives to focus on constant and never-ending improvement. It’s about how do I get better today than I was yesterday? How do I get better tomorrow than I was today? And how can I look at others in terms of a benchmark of where we’re placed in the marketplace? But I’m not going to play the comparison games, and I’m not certainly going to focus on my competition in terms of what they’re doing. I’m going to be focusing on me in terms of what we’re doing and how we’re setting new benchmarks and let the other companies and let the other sales teams focus and worry about us.

If we set the new benchmarks and if we’re constantly looking at how we can improve and how we can get better, then we will never be concerned about the competition because we’re always setting new benchmarks.

So the key message in today’s daily sales tip is this understand that your real competition is not your key competitor in your marketplace. The real competitor is yourself and always focus on how can we constantly look at ways to get better. You do that, you’ll set new benchmarks not only for your own organization, you’ll set new benchmarks for your own industry and let the other competitors chase you do that and you guys become unstoppable. That is today’s Daily Sales Tip.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Darren on LinkedIn and to his website, podcast, and more, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1156.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Providing a sense of urgency to both your customers, your prospects, and even folks on your team.” – John Yoder in today’s Tip 1155

What is your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and connect with John on LinkedIn!

John Yoder on LinkedIn

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 John Yoder. John is a ten-year sales vet who lives and breathes all things customer success and isn’t afraid to promise an 8-minute response time. When not looking out for others’ best interests, he resides in the Greater Cleveland area with his wife, daughter, dog, and love of everything Ohio State. Here he is:

John Yoder: Hello Daily Sales Tip Community. This is John Yoder with another oversimplified yet very successful sales tip for your career. Has anyone else noticed that in today’s sales ecosystem, that folks are kind of expecting things, like they’re owed a deal, like they’re owed a meeting, like they’re owed anything? Strange, right?

You know who actually gets the deals and who creates the relationships and who creates a lasting impact on their customers and peers, those with a sense of urgency. And that is what today’s tip is around really is the lack of urgency that I feel has come in today’s sales ecosystem.

Now, I’m sure Scott mentioned in my opening that I promised my customers an 8-minute response time, that is a real thing. Actually do stick to that as a way to be remembered. Now, obviously, I can’t always secure that. For example, if I’m out to lunch with a customer or prospect or something like that, I’m obviously not going to take time and attention away from the conversation I’m having. But if I’m sitting at the computer and working on a deal and someone pings me and says, “Hey, I really need this by this afternoon,” if I get that, whatever it is, to them in 4-minutes, they’re almost blown away by the fact that I’ve prioritized a very simple task that they may have otherwise thought was going to go kind of by the wayside.

And it’s not the task that they remember, but it’s how you made them feel as the famous Maya Angelou quote goes to say, “Wow, he or she really took me as a priority because they got this done immediately and I wasn’t even expecting that.” So I think one of the things that you want to emphasize that really doesn’t take a ton of effort or energy is providing a sense of urgency to both your customers, your prospects, and even folks on your team. It shows you care. It doesn’t take a whole lot of resource and it really just puts you in a good spot and creates a good reputation.

So I encourage all of you out there listening today. If it’s 4:30 – 8 P.M. and someone asks you for a quote and the owed you, would have gotten it done tomorrow morning, I urge you to put a little bit of sense of urgency in it and get that quote out the door by 5 P.M., even if they don’t ask for it, because you would be surprised how many of those deals or those interactions reflect positively on you as a sales professional versus just being someone who does it for a living.

As I’ll keep in my themes, as I did for resourcefulness. It’s super simple and it’s not something that’s overly complicated but it’ll do wonders for your career and I hope you guys hang up this podcast today and put it into action on your next email. Looking forward to the next tip and happy selling everybody. Take care.

Scott Ingram: John would love to connect with you on LinkedIn, as long as you don’t immediately pitch him after you do. We’ve got that link for you a DailySales.Tips/1155  and once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Pay attention to the no’s that you’re getting and see if there are opportunities to keep the ball in the air.” – Jeff Bajorek in today’s Tip 1153

Do you pay attention to your no’s?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Jeff’Bajorek on LinkedIn
Rethink The Way You Sell Podcast

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 Jeff Bajorek has pulled himself away from his brand new Rethink The Way You Sell podcast to bring us a great new tip. Here he is:

Jeff Bajorek: It doesn’t take a world-class sales expert to recognize that you’re going to hear no a lot more often than you hear yes. But what I’m going to challenge you to do today is to pay attention to your ‘No’s’. No, not that thing on your face. I’m talking about the no’s that you hear from your prospects. Pay attention to them because there’s a difference in a lot of them. Sometimes it’s just not the right fit. It’s just not going to work. We’re not addressing this problem at this time. Your solution doesn’t make sense to us. We don’t see how this is going to work. Okay, that’s great. But regularly, maybe not often, but regularly, if you’re doing it right, you’re going to hear, “This isn’t the right fit for us right now. We don’t think this is going to work for us at this time.”

There are opportunities more often than you think to set a meeting two months, three months, six months in advance to check back in and to see how their process is going. And this is a pretty simple request. “Look, Scott, I appreciate you spending this time. I appreciate you indulging our presentation. I would really think this is going to fit for you. But if you don’t see it, I understand. And it sounds like you are headed in a direction that well, doesn’t drive with how we would approach this issue. I can see some logic and you’ll probably see some good results.” I’ll tell you what would it make sense for us to get together in a few months and just see if things are going the way you think they are? What can you learn?

Now, most people are going to give up on this. They’re going to think this is an opportunity that is gone. What do I want to do? Why do I want to spend time with an opportunity that’s already gone? Well, you’ve earned the right to ask that should not be ignored. Secondly, you’ve also earned the rapport to have that conversation in a couple of months and think about what you can learn. Think about what you will learn by asking the questions that you really want to ask. Your clients will give you probably not privileged information, but they’ll give you some insights to how things are working and why. And you are going to be so well prepared to compete against those other companies. And you’re also going to be so much better prepared to have conversations with your prospects in the future about what they can expect and why they could expect something different from you. Hopefully that they can expect something better from you.

But you’re missing those opportunities for really good relationship building, really good insight, and intel that’s going to make you much more competitive in the future. And here’s the kicker. A lot of those companies just not ready for you right now. They might be ready for you in a couple of months. They won’t be ready for you if you drop the ball. So much about winning in sales, particularly over the long term, is keeping the ball in the air. It’s just making sure that the opportunity isn’t completely lost even if the timing doesn’t work for you right now. And look, if you have enough in your pipeline you’ve heard me say this before as well as so many other of my colleagues with enough pipeline, you’re not worried about any individual deal. You can take something that doesn’t close right now and still work it to close in the future but if you’re getting too hung up with what you have to do right now, right in front of you, you’re missing opportunities for the future.

Willing opportunities, opportunities that right now are in front of you that says “I see a role for this person, this company to help us. It’s just not the role right now” and they will forget about you if you allow them to. So keep the ball in the air as long as you can. Pay attention to the no’s that you’re getting and see if there are opportunities to keep the ball in the air and you’re going to make things so much easier on yourself because that’s less prospecting you’re going to have to do. These are more people who could refer you. Think about the people who could refer you even if they don’t do business with you right now because they appreciate what you do and how you approach your process. Don’t give up too early.

Scott Ingram: For links to Jeff’s brand new Rethink The Way You Sell podcast, which is just a handful of super high-quality episodes in, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1153.

Once you’ve finished listening through those, be sure to come back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Implementing a daily report, as an inside rep, as a field rep, as a sales manager, and even as a VP dramatically changed my life.” – Chris Prangley in today’s Tip 1152

Do you implement a daily report for yourself?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Chris!

The Tech Sales Warrior Website
The Tech Sales Warrior Book
Chris Prangley on Linkedin

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 Chris Prangley. With more than a decade of sales experience in the enterprise B2B market, Chris and his team help global firms solve challenges in data security, collaboration, threat detection, and governance. As the VP of Sales– in the west for a multibillion-dollar cybersecurity firm, Chris is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. Here he is:

Chris Prangley: Today’s Daily Sales Tip is send yourself a daily report of outcomes.

1. What did you achieve in building pipeline today?

2. What did you achieve in moving a deal one step closer to revenue today?

The key thing is they must be tangible outcomes. This isn’t about how many dials you make or how many hours you spent doing the activity to get to those tangibles. A zero sometimes is a wake-up call. It may mean that you just need to keep going and doing what you’re doing. It may mean after a couple of cycles that it’s time to shift the strategy. The strategy isn’t working.

I wouldn’t recommend doing that right away because as we all know, it can take a couple of obstacles until we hit our stride. Right? But implementing a daily report, as an inside rep, as a field rep, as a sales manager, and even as a VP dramatically changed my life. Implement a daily report for yourself.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Chris and to get your hands on his new book: The Tech Sales Warrior, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1152.

Once you’ve done that, be sure to click right back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“We want people to make a change first, then make that change with us, and then we really want to understand when they’re going to make the change.” – David Weiss in today’s Tip 1151

What is your thought about this?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

MEDDPICC Master Class
David Weiss on LinkedIn

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 David Weiss, the master of MEDDPICC and the Head of Sales at LeaseUp. Here he is:

David Weiss: Hello everyone this is David Weiss and I’m coming at you with a sales tip around MEDDPICC, but it’s not going to be your typical one. So I was thinking last night and there’s kind of these like, archetypal frameworks and sales around a lot of our messaging. And one of them is all about ‘why change.’ Another one is kind of like ‘why you’ and then another one is like ‘when’, like the timing of the change. And the last one isn’t so much an archetypal as it is just a fundamental part of what we do when we try and get a deal. We want people to make a change first, then make that change with us, and then we really want to understand when they’re going to make the change.

So I was thinking about how this fits into MEDDPICC because I was launching my MEDDPICC Master Class and I wanted to think about we get inbound, we go outbound and we’re running deals all the time. But there are some letters of MEDDPICC that are more important than others based on the scenario. And I don’t think that people talk about that enough or at all. So I wanted to put a little bit of a framework around this.

So the ‘why change’ message. If you’re thinking about, “Hey, how do I get someone to make a change?” The areas of MEDDPICC and the components of your deal, really to me, center around Metrics. Am I building a business case? Economic buyer. Do I have a decision-maker, someone that can create budget because it’s a new change. It’s an unknown project. So we have to create budgets. So we need to find someone that can do that. So that’s the E in MEDDPICC. You need to understand and help them build decision criteria because they likely don’t have that today and need to help them think through that. And you need to help them really identify a key problem.

So to me, to get someone to change something, you first need to figure out; Hey, what’s the problem trying to solve? Then how are they going to solve it? Hopefully, with my solution, that’s the criteria. Then we need to find someone that is willing to solve it and can create budget, and then we need to work with them to justify that change overall.

So it’s not that the overall MEDDPICC isn’t important, but it is super, the M, the E, the Decision Criteria, and the Pain to me are the most important when you’re trying to help someone, just make a change. So if the business hasn’t committed to change, such as in maybe like an outbound sales process where you’re kind of starting the initiative. Focusing there is where we should start.

Now let’s flip that. Say someone came inbound to you. Well, the business case isn’t as important because they’ve already decided to make a change, and they’re likely already have justified it somewhere in some way shape, or form. It’s important for you to know? Yeah, but they’ve already kind of figured that out. Do you need an economic buyer? Well, it’d be good to get to them, but fundamentally, the business has already decided to make a change, and they’re now trying to figure who they should make that change with. The decision process isn’t as important. The problem they’re trying to solve is actually really important, but more for you to know. So you can align the right solution not to, again, drive the change.

So as you’re thinking about it, what’s really the most important things?

Well, the most important things are competition. So why you? Why are you different and better? And how can you differentiate versus the competition? Building Champions. Who can get in your corner and say, we want this vendor or this company to partner with? And then decision criteria in the sense of you really, really need to get good, like super deep on decision criteria on an inbound, more so than anything else, because what you want to understand is kind of the priorities, the nuances. And then from a competitive stance, how do you guys stack against those? Because if you do everything you’re looking for, you’ve got a good chance of winning. If you do some of the things you’re looking for, maybe you don’t. And then the other part of this is how can you then expand the pie? So you want these five things? Well, that’s cool. We also do these three other things. Are they important to you? Well, tell me more about them. And then you’re starting to create a moat around you and your solution because you’re expanding the pie of your decision criteria.

So to me, those are the most important things. And then, yeah, of course, I want to know every other part of MEDDPICC to make sure I don’t have any gaps in my deal. But there’s a fundamental difference in the approach for outbound versus inbound and how you look at MEDDPICC to do those things. And then lastly, when is someone going to make the deal or when is someone going to sign the deal? The timeline. To me, those components are all made up of decision process and paper process. And by nailing those two things, you can really figure out when you’re getting this deal.

So hopefully that’s helpful and maybe a slightly different way of looking at MEDDPICC because it’s changing. Maybe the upfront approach here where if you’re looking at it and you’re getting an inbound. Man, really, really focus on why they’re calling you. What is that decision criteria? Who can you quickly find the business to turn into Champions based on the problems you discover? And then how can you create a wide moat around yourself from a competitive perspective? And then if you’re trying to drive a change it’s all about the problem you’re solving, quantifying the problem, finding someone that cares about it, that can create the budget for your great idea. And those are the M, E, and the I of MEDDPICC.

So hopefully that was helpful, let me know your thoughts on it and that is my tip of the day and by the way just launch my MEDDPICC Master Class. Go check it out MEDDPICC, M-E-D-D-P-I-C-C Sales, MEDDPICCSales.com. Thanks for listening everybody and if you need anything hit me up on LinkedIn. Happy to help. Thanks, everybody.

Scott Ingram: For that link again to David’s MEDDPICC Master Class, which you can gets your hands on for just $99 if you do it before the end of March, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1151.

Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The next time you speak to a prospect of a buyer, focus on being the teacher, not the feature.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1150

Are you the feature or the teacher?

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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 our regular sales tip teacher, Meshell Baker. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello and welcome to Today’s Daily Sales Tip. And I’ll ask you a question. When you speak, are you the feature or the teacher? And I’ll say it again, are you the feature or the teacher?

So often so many salespeople want to feature what they have to offer. They want to feature their knowledge. They want to feature their excellence, their ability to be a thought leader, to be smart, to be well versed in their products, to just really talk at the buyer about what it is you have to offer in the hopes of getting a sale. Which is interesting because what most buyers are looking for is that you would speak to them in a manner that teaches them more about your product and how your product solves their problem. They are currently experiencing a gap in what they have and what they want in your product is the thing that helps them cross the precipice of that gap.

So I ask you, when you speak, are you the teacher or the teacher? And if you want to be the teacher, you will begin speaking in a manner that,

S – Shares the successes of your prior clients. Instead of talking about the bells and whistles and all the things, speak to them in a manner that really talks about how a client similar to them experience success and this is what you guys decided, what the challenge. This is what you work on together to create the solution. And this is how they’re doing now, having experienced the excellence of your product.

P – Purposefully passionate. Are you speaking passion? Are you enthusiastic about the opportunity to help them solve for whatever it is they need not to solve for your desire to sell a product which is very different because it requires that you ask them questions more about them. What they’ve already tried, who they’ve already tried, what doesn’t work, what in their wildest dreams they would help to be able to accomplish by working with you?

E – Extraordinary efforts. Sometimes and let’s be honest, many times the successful salesperson is willing to go the extra mile, to take extra time in doing research, to look for solutions that might not even be of your company because the goal is to serve that client. You never know where your next big sale or big deal is going to come from. And sometimes it’s simply because you help someone did make a sale and they referred you. Start to think extraordinary efforts for whoever is in front of you, you’re having a conversation with because you’re leaving them with the experience that you are a solution. And any time they come across someone else with a similar problem, they will refer you.

A – Appreciate the adventure of the discovery. Have fun with it. Don’t be scared that they are going to ask you something you don’t know. Be willing to tell them when you don’t know something and let them know you’ll follow up. How soon do you need me to get back to you with that? Stay in the realm of teaching them that you are 100% on their side and you are truly about helping them to solve whatever it is you’re solving for.

And finally, the K is kind-hearted knowing. It is a compassionate way of when you know more than them, you’re okay not having to express it in a way that you are trying to be the feature of the conversation. Your goal is to deliver your knowledge in a way that helps them to feel empowered, inspired, and hopeful about the results that you will be delivering and co-creating together.

So remember when you speak, the next time you speak to a prospect of a buyer, focus on being the teacher, not the feature. Have a great day selling!

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1150 and we’ll have those as well as the transcript for this tip. Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip from David Weiss. Thanks for listening!