“Think outside the box a bit and bring new ideas to your prospects. This is a great way to get a meeting with enterprise prospects.” – Sam Hemphill in today’s Tip 835
How do you customize your messaging and every call?
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Sam Hemphill on LinkedIn
Fishing for Whales Book
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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 Sam Hemphill. Sam is a Sales and Business Development leader in the technology and finance industries and author of the new book, Fishing for Whales: 14 Prospecting Principles for Enterprise Sales. He’s been selling to and developing partnerships with large enterprises since 2011. Here he is:
Sam Hemphill: Here’s a tip for calling on large prospects. Customize your messaging and every call. When we are new to sales, we are often taught that prospecting activity leads to opportunities and opportunities leads to wins. Hence sales management via activity metrics is a common practice. This is rightfully so in SMB sales with a straightforward solution that is more of a commodity or a one size fits all. Sales management by activity metrics works. This approach does not work in large account sales, and if you try and build your pipeline only through increased activity, you’re not only spinning your wheels, you may be going backward. Do your research, take every call seriously. You’re providing a complex solution and you should approach the prospect as a consultant.
Everyone tells Salespeople to be a consultant. Consultant is the big buzzword. I see organizations that title their sales roles as consulting roles, but what does actually consulting consist of? Even if your solution does not have a lot of complexity, it will likely be a complex undertaking for an enterprise prospect to incorporate your solution into their existing way of doing things. Your prospects need help with your company-specific solution and also with how to best leverage your type of solution.
So you must give them expert advice. Yes, you will actively listen to your prospects from first contact and throughout the sale, but you will approach them as an industry expert who is bringing an idea, a concept, a new way of doing things. This is what consulting is in large account sales. You will see something in the marketplace or in your research that triggers an idea which allows you to bring value in a way that only you can. And you will call the customer asking to present this idea. Your ideas should be fresh, new, and innovative.
Here are some things to think about when consulting your prospects. Is there a different way of justifying the adoption of your solution? For example, can you build ROI in a way that is not commonly stated in your field? Can you reconfigure or use your solution in a different way? How does your solution deliver real value, apart from the most common ways? Can you feel a need that is new to the world or an industry with all of the disruptions due to the pandemic, Salespeople who are finding unique uses of their solutions, are getting ahead.
Can you help your prospect reduce spend if they adopt your solution at a cost to them? Where does your solution help them reduce overall spend? Could your solution help your prospects increase revenue? Could it help them increase revenue in ways they have not thought of? Could your solution reduce the amount of time it takes to review data? Can you help prospects increase available capital? How about helping them increase workflow efficiency? You need a unique reason to call your prospects, your customers can evaluate products all day long on their own.
They don’t need you to call them just to tell them facts about your products. They need you to give them ideas, advise them on best practices with your solution, and challenge them to find more effective ways of doing business. So think outside the box a bit and bring new ideas to your prospects. This is a great way to get a meeting with enterprise prospects.
Scott Ingram: To connect with Sam and to get your hands on a copy of his new book: Fishing for Whales, just click over to DailySales.Tips/835 and we’ll have everything for you there.
Once you’ve done that. Be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!