“Sales is about circles and straight lines. If you try and move in a straight line too fast, you’re going to end up being forced back into a circular motion or the deal is going to die.” – David Weiss in today’s Tip 1734
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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 David Weiss. David is the Chief Revenue Officer of the Sales Collective and founder of DealDoc. Here he is:
David Weiss: What’s up, everybody? David Weis here. I’ve got another interesting one for you. You’re going to look puzzled when you hear these sales is all about circles and straight lines. That’s right. Circles and straight lines. The problem with the modern sales process is that it is designed as a straight line. We go from discovery to presenting solutions to agreeing on solutions to business case value to proposal to close. But the reality is that is not how the modern buyer buys. We all know the modern buyer journey and how crazy it is, and I’m not trying to get too deep there. But the purpose of the early part of the sales process, if it was designed appropriately, would be a circle. We need to figure out all the stakeholders we could impact. We need to talk to end users. We need to talk to cross functions. We need to talk to multiple stakeholders at different levels. And we need to do discovery with all of them.
So now I want you to envision a circle. I’m having a conversation with a person. I’m identifying the problem that they have. I’m showing them how I solve it, and then finding somebody new, and I’m going in another circle, in another circle, in another circle. And I’m doing that motion until I’ve rallied enough support, until I’ve built directionally a business case, till I’ve almost whiteboarded where they are today and all the problems inside of that motion and that process and the ripple effect of all of those. I’ve talked to people where I understand who’s going to use it and how they’re going to use it and what they do today.
I’ve talked to people around how they’re going to deploy it and ensure success. I’ve talked to different departments to understand what they would get out of this change. I’ve had multiple circular-based conversations. I then can pull all those teams together and across every single one of them, Validate how we’re helping and supporting and building outcomes for them. And then I can now move in a somewhat of a straight line because I’ve done all that work. And now I can say, I know the right solution for you. And now I can get an executive involved. And now I can finalize the business case and get aligned on the solution and then move to a proposal and then try and close the deal. Because I did all those circular motions ahead of time.
I had the groundswell and the wave of support that then allows me to move in a fairly linear fashion without people saying, Oh, this isn’t a priority, or, Oh, there isn’t a case for change, or, Oh, we don’t need to do this right now. Because I did all the work to ensure those objections were already overcome before I even went to the people to get them. Again, sales is about circles and straight lines. If you try and move in a straight line too fast, you’re going to end up being forced back into a circular motion or the deal is going to die. Before you go and try and get support and close the deal, ensure you’ve moved in a circular fashion enough where you’re not going to run into all those challenges. Do the work ahead of time and you’ll save yourself a lot in the future. Hopefully, that was helpful and insightful.
Scott Ingram: For links to connect with David and learn more about him, The Sales Collective and DealDoc, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1734. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!