The first time I talk about myself to somebody, I'm going to put it
in the context of the problems that we solve and the outcomes that we drive
for a business. You're listening to the Audible Ready Podcast, the show that
helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature sales leaders sharing their
best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue
growth. Presented by the team Afforce Management, a leader in B to B
sales effectiveness. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales
Podcast. I'm Rachel clapp Miller, joined today by Brian Walsh. Hi,
Brian, Hey, Rachel, what's up? What is up? So this
is going to be a short and sweet podcast. This is going to be
some short tidbits of information for you. We're going to talk about when you
talk about your solution or how to be more specific, how to slow down
the customer and hold them off so you're not just showing up and throwing up
when we did you like that? Right? Okay? Yeah, yeah.
When we're doing discovery, we're having this sometimes we call it us slow dance,
right, We're having great conversations with the customer. It's also a really
pivotal time and a lot of times will be like, Okay, just tell
me what you do. I only I can't get into and tell me what
you do. Yeah, but you want to talk about what you do in
a way that's relevant to your customer, Brian, let's just kind of talk
about how you manage the pushback from the customer when they just want to know
what you do. But let's start with just the basic tenants about talking about
yourself in a great way as a seller. Okay, so tenant number one
and maybe the ultimate commandment is every time you talk about yourself, you have
to ensure that you tie it back to something that's relevant. Otherwise you're just
throwing darts into dark. There's been enough scientific research to prove the point that
if you start talking and you don't hit people where they live within the first
sixty or ninety seconds, there's a good chance the light switches in their heads.
They're going to start turning off. And like, this really is easy
to see in a crowd, right, whether it's a stand up comedian or
you're not right, or you're having a meeting or doing a presentation for thirty
potential customers at a conference or whatever. You can see it. You can
see people checking out because whatever being said is not resonating with them because you
don't have any reference points. So my tenant is easy. If you're in
the middle of a sales cycle and the customers like, hey, okay,
I think it's time for a deep dive demo etta, you probably already have
a lot of good context where at a minimum, you're walking in the room
knowing, Okay, I know I'm going to talk about the following four things,
because those four things are the most critical things to getting them to the
outcomes you're solving the problem that we're trying to help them solve. And every
time I talk about one of those things, I'm going to come over the
top and remind them why that is so important to driving to an outcome that's
easy, and then I can do more discovery in that moment, and my
technical support subject matter expert person can help me with that and all of that.
But on the earlier side of these conversations, when we first meet someone
either early in the sales cycle or the first time we meet someone later in
the sales cycle. Every first time we meet somebody. That's when you can
get yourself in big trouble because that's when somebody gives you the hey, tell
me about your stuff, tell me about your company, or maybe even the
worst one. Hey, I had your stuff at my last company. I
want to buy it at this company. Like that might be the most dangerous
because the whole expense they want to buy from me. So I'm gonna start
talking about all my stuff and or I just assume you know everything like this
is a really dangerous moment, that opening moment when somebody basically gives you the
chance to talk. You've got to be able to slow this thing down.
And oh, by the way, this is a negotiation lesson, because I'm
going to teach you a lesson by what I'm about to do when I say,
hey, Rachel, these are the problems we're helping other organizations like yours,
or other people who sit in the chair that you sit in in your
company stall for So let's burst and foremost get inside of the conversation that really
matters to you. So that's the first thing I'm gonna do. The first
time I talk about myself to somebody, I'm going to put it in the
context of the problems that we solve and the outcomes that we drive for a
business revenue costs for risk. And if you don't have the answer to that
question, if you're listening to this podcast right now and you're saying, well,
that's nice, but my company doesn't I don't have an answer to those
questions, well then you should stop right now, get the right people in
a room and literally ask that question, what problems do we solve and what
outcomes do we drive? Because you know, as our friend Dave Davies likes
to say, this is that moment where when you were a kid, you
were reading a pick your Own Journey book, right, and you get to
the bottom of page sentence says, if you want our hero Rachel to rock
into the cave, turn to page fifteen. If you want to hear Rachel
to jump off the cliff without a parachute, turn to page twenty eight,
right, and same thing here. Hey, listen, Rachel, these are
the problems we're helping other organizations like yours, other people in your role solved
for, and these are the kinds of outcomes are trying to help them drive
for their business. It's not about your products, it's about where you're relevant.
So eight, let's make sure I'm in the conversation that you care about.
And then I think you have to in your own style. This is
important, Like how I say things may not be the way you stand,
but in your own style you have to then be comfortable saying to someone.
So if that's one of the problems, you know, if we can pick
the problem or the problems or outcomes that you care about, and then you
can give me some context about that if we have if we have thirty minutes,
give me ten minutes all about that from your perspective, and then I'll
give you an initial fifteen minutes all about us, and then we got five
minutes left and talk about appropriate next step and whether or not we should meet
again, and who else from your organization should be involved, because I'm a
big believer. That's that's a good qualification moment as well, because if somebody
won't give you ten minutes about them so that you can give him fifteen minutes
about you, that initially that will land. They're probably wasting your time,
right, So then you can figure out, well, do I ask it
gracefully or do I just kind of give them a little bit and then get
out. I'm always qualifying the opportunity, but I'm also qualifying the person I'm
in front of. And this is the qualification of the person. And if
I don't get the answer, like, it doesn't mean that I qualify the
deal out in that moment, but I may realize that this is someone I'm
in front of that I probably need to try to minimize in this conversation or
it's probably not going to be good for me and for us. So like,
there's a lot in that answer, and maybe I can stop and take
a breath, but there this is a really important topic because I'll finish it
with this. If somebody asks me to talk and they won't give me any
context, I'm very comfortable looking at them and saying, do you have three
hours? Because I can talk for three hours about who we are and what
we do and how we do it and how we do it better. But
if I don't hate you where you live in the first ninety seconds, you're
probably gonna get up and leave, or at least your brain is going to
shut off. I want to give you what you need, but I need
something from you. First negotiation lesson. I will always trade ye ten minutes
about you, I'll give you fifteen minutes all about me. Give me twenty
minutes about you, I'll give you thirty minutes all about me. And I'll
always save some time out last or not least in that the other thing.
This is a skill. You have to be really smart about this. If
you agree to give me ten minutes all about you. At the nine and
a half minute mark, and I'm like watching, you know, I like
to wear watching all hellen today, but I'm watching my watch. You know,
I got the timer or whatever in the block on my iPhone whatever.
At the nine and a half minute mark, I'm looking at you, going,
hey, Rachel, we're right up against our ten minutes. Is there
anything else you want me to have or would you like me to pivot and
start to answer some of that with how we help fall for some of those
things. So now I've given you the choice, watch what happened. More
often than you realize, people will be like, well, yeah, there
are a couple more things, okay, And then when I talk, I
watch my time and everything and remember everything I say in that twelve or fifteen
minutes I got has got to attach back to what you said and if there's
one or two other things I want to talk about, I then have to
lay that out with a couple of questions. Hey, Rachel, I noticed
you didn't mention anything about the topic of security. Can I ask you a
couple of questions about how your organizations use security and a play like this to
see if that's a topic that I should come back with some information about us
on. So like, it's still all about you first. So the best
example of that I've ever seen is, and I'm sorry I can't remember her
name. I met a sales rep who our company has worked with at three
different places. She's worked and she's awesome, And she has a part who's
a technical subject matter expert who has followed her. The two of them are
they're a package. Like they work together, they go together. Yeah,
and they have this down to a science. Whenever they're together and he is
talking more technical or doing a demo or you know that kind of thing,
they agree ahead of time, what are we going to talk about? And
then this is what they do. Every time he talks about a capability,
he attaches it back to the problem and the outcome that they're trying to help
the customers think through and then she comes over the top with additional content on
why that capability and how her company does it is so critically important to giving
them the best can of solving that problem or getting to that outcome. These
two are like a there are one plus one equals three in action, right,
but to the point that every time they open their mouth they only talk
about something from their company that's going to attach back to what you care about.
Yeah, and I think that that's such a great takeaway. Maybe they
listen to the audibility Sales podcast reach out to me, will do to have
you on? You know, if I can figure out who that is,
we should we should get them on a pot. They are they are awesome.
Yeah, you gave a couple examples of how to deflect the customer,
like, hey, just give me your spiel. I loved what you said
about saying hey, well, people typically in your roles are faced with X,
Y Z, and we help them do ABC. Yeah, we help
them achieve the following types of things. Yeah, and also positioning it like
I don't want to waste your time. Your time is valuable, So if
you give me ten minutes, I'll give you ten or twenty or whatever.
About me. Are there any other ways that you like to deflect the eager
customer who just wants to get your hits runs in errors? Yeah, unsor
that's great. Yeah. The other thing I think about when you ask that
immediately is there's probably two things. One is I like to also find a
way to start talking about what I like to call the collective. Yet I
want to honor the person I'm in front of, whether that's the first person
I meet in your company or or the tenth. I always want to honor
the person I'm in front of because I know that person has a role to
play. They're either a key decision maker in some part of this decision,
or they are an influencer in some form or fashion. But I'm never going
to dishonor the people that aren't in the room. And if you're the one
I'm in front of, I'm never going to dishonor you if you're not in
the room on another day in time. So one of the things I like
to get on the table at some point is, you know, because most
sellers are like, hey, I want to meet the following people or who
else is involved in this decision. You got to stop that because ay,
I believe most people don't know who else is involved, so they make stuff
up. Or secondly, if that's not the case, you may be signaling
by how you ask that talk about that, that you're trying to get through,
that you're trying to get around them. And I know nobody really is
trying to do that, but that's what people on the other side of the
desk tendency to hear. So what I will say is, hey, this
is a good conversation. Now, this is the second thing that if your
company doesn't have, you got to get in the room and figure out you
got to have a point of view on who are the roles inside of your
staverage customer that's going to be involved in these decisions. You've got to have
that point of view. Because if by that point of view, instead of
me saying you, hey, who else has involved in this decision and hoping
that you don't aid get intimidated or upset by that and be you don't make
something up, I can say, hey, Rachel, when we're having these
conversations with an organization like yours, you who sit in this seat are always
a part of that conversation. And these are the other five or six people
that are typically involved in these conversations with or an organization like ours. And
what we have found is when we can get to all of them together,
you and I and understand this conversation from where they sit, the five,
six, eight of you, have a much better chance of getting to a
collective yes as to a this is important? Should we do this engagement and
be who's the right organization to do it with, whether it's us or not?
Yeah? And then what I like to say is, because whether you
buy from us or not, that's not the initial question to be answered.
The question to be answered first is what's the right thing for us to do
as a company. Is this a good use of our time and our resources
to solve for this problem and solved to these outcomes? And what's really required
to get there? And if we can have that conversation with all of the
right people, I'll know before you do if I'm a good fit or not.
And if I'm not, I'll look in the eye I tell you.
Yeah. Well, that's like one way to open this up a little bit.
And the second thing I like to do is I like to make first
sales calls alone because especially and I never have, then I'm not the technical
expert. Because if I bring subject matter expertise or a technical expert somebody like
that on the first call, a lot of tense because of where we get
accessed, right, we typically get access in our accounts at the mid level
or lower. The eos and CIOs are not sitting around waiting to have a
meeting with us. You and I both know it. So let's just be
honest. Our initial access was with people lower in the organization. They typically
care more about the technical buying decision, the product decision, not the use
of money and the value. So if I go on the first call with
the technical resources, a chance. This thing's kind of devolved into a product
conversation, and I'm going to make you earn access to those people. So
if you're the first person I meet, I'm going alone. And when you
start talking about products, it puts me in a business and say, hey,
Rachel, I got product expertise and technical resources that can go deep and
wide. But before they do that and spend four hours with you, when
we could have done it in an hour, but they didn't know what they
were meeting to talk about. Let's have the conversation about you and your company,
so that when I bring that person in next time, they actually can
dive into the stuff that actually matters. I think those are a couple of
ways to think about deflecting this and moving the conversation where it needs to go
first, so that any it's just the old concept of any time I opened
my mouth, anything I say has got to connect to what you care about.
Well, how could I do that without any context from you other than
having a point of view that I can use to see up That's the one
place you can do this, Rachel. These are the problems we're helping other
organizations and people like you solve for, and these are the outcomes we're helping
them drive to. And remember when I say outcomes, I don't mean product
capabilities, I mean business outcomes. Right, how is the company running?
What benefit are you getting from a revenue perspective or a cost perspective or a
reduction in risk. I was having a conversation with somebody the other day who
sells to the US military, and he was very clear, this is about
risk to soldiers the mission so like, and he's very comfortable going there because
he knows that that's the outcome that his company helps other branches of the military
feed. That kind of brings me to the next topic that I would love
to use as sort of a wrap up. We often talk about confidence being
such a pivotal component to being a great seller. When you bring up the
gentleman you just set who sells to the military, talk selling on the outcome
of safety. Confidence really plays into it here. And I know you degree,
yeah, and that's you know, that's part because part of that is
DNA and how you're wired. And I'll be the first one to tell you
listen. I still remember my first sales call on my own. I was
twenty two, I just graduated from college and my first sales call I didn't
even make. I sat in my car and looked at the building and said,
okay, I'm ready. And I looked in the mirror and I got
my tie. Radio just back when you wore a tie, right, you
know, straight in my tie, looked at my stuff straight my tie,
looked at my stuff straight in my time. And I drove away because I
didn't know what the hell to do. I was afraid of my own shadow.
So I'll be the first to admit the confidence comes with reps. So
you gotta do it. That's the first thing. But the other thing that
it steals confidence is content. So this point of view that I'm laying out
for you, everything i've said today is a universal truth. Now how you
say it, it should be in your own style. Okay, I'm not
suggesting how I say things is exactly how others should say it, based on
who you are, where you live, your cultural norms, the relationship you
have, but the person you're in front of, etc. But the other
thing you gotta have is you've got to have content. That's why I said
twice, get in a room to pray people in your company and answer these
couple of questions so that you can look people in the eyes and say,
hey, Rachel, I'd love to talk to you about what we do.
But it's kind of expansive. So instead of me rambling for two hours and
the hopes of something lands, how might you give me fifteen minutes all about
you, and that I can give you thirty minutes all about us. That
will be a really good initial conversation to see whether or not we're a good
potential fit. What's the worst thing that's going to happen? I mean,
it's going to say no, and then I'm going to say okay, Well,
then that means we probably shouldn't spend any time together. That's the hard
part. But I've done it and once in a while people like, yeah,
you're probably right. Okay, But Watson's like, well, what do
you mean. I'm well, let me stay a little differently. If I
keep talking, your brain's gonna shut off because I'm probably not going to hit
anything that you care about. As you said, I can show up and
vomit all over your desk in the hope that something sick. I don't think
you want that metaphorically speaking, right, that's so true. Easy come,
easy go. And your time is valuable too. As a rep. You
made that point in this conversation today, like you only have so many hours
a day to sell and you need to spend it. Are you gonna want
to spend it with the people that are gonna see the value of your solution
otherwise it's gone? Of course, you might somebody say, might hear you
say that? Go, Well, maybe I don't have anybody else in the
pipeline. Okay, fine, go use the time to try to build more
pipeline. Yeah, one of the best sales managers I've ever worked with.
Brandon was a counterpart of mine, he used to say. I still remember
when he moved to the western end of Michigan to take over that part of
the state, and like twelve reps, the first thing he said to his
reps was, Hey, heads up, you gotta understand that the best sellers
are great marketers. First. They know how to market, to create awareness
before consideration. And I never forgot that. And this point was, Pipeline
generation is not about finding a new opportunity every day. Pipeline generation is about
creating awareness in the marketplace that keeps people teaching top of mind so that when
the right time hits, you're the first call that they made. So chary,
oh totally so true. Maybe a different podcast, I know I wrote
it down right, but get on your calendar to record that shortly. Thank
you for your time today, Brian, thanks Rachael, all right, and
thank you to all of you for continuing to listen to the Audible Ready Sales
podcast. At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into elite teams.
Are proven methodologies, deliver pro programs that build company alignment and fuel repeatable
revenue growth. Give your teams the ability to execute the growth strategy at the
point of sale. Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our
results. Let's get started. Visit us at force management dot com. You've
been listening to the Audible Ready podcast. To not miss an episode, subscribe
to the show in your favorite podcast player until next time.