Speaker 1: The first question is what problems are we truly solving
Speaker 1: from our customers with this thing that we've created. What
Speaker 1: outcomes can we drive as a result, or maybe said
Speaker 1: a different way, What will this help the customer achieve
Speaker 1: that they haven't even thought about.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the audible Ready Podcast, the show that
Speaker 2: helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature
Speaker 2: sales leaders sharing their best insights on how to create
Speaker 2: a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue growth.
Speaker 2: Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in
Speaker 2: B to B sales effectiveness. Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 3: Rachel Klett Miller. Joining me today is our own Brian Walsh.
Speaker 3: Hi Brian, Hi, Rachel, how are you good? Good? So
Speaker 3: today we are going to talk about a situation many
Speaker 3: of us are faced with, and as we get towards
Speaker 3: the end of the calendar year, many of us might
Speaker 3: be faced with us even more. Your company is getting
Speaker 3: ready to roll out new products, new options, new things
Speaker 3: that you need to sell. I'm sure you have been
Speaker 3: in this situation many times, Brian.
Speaker 1: Yes, that brings up lots of memories and.
Speaker 3: So you're sitting there as a wrap and you're thinking, Okay,
Speaker 3: I've got to figure out a way to sell this,
Speaker 3: and we're going to talk about how do you approach
Speaker 3: that in the right way, in a way that's going
Speaker 3: to make you successful and make your customers happy. So
Speaker 3: let's start with Brian, the mindset you need to have
Speaker 3: when you get the news right, there's new stuff in
Speaker 3: the bag.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it makes me just your opening made me
Speaker 1: think of something I had not as I was kind
Speaker 1: of thinking about this topic the last few days, because
Speaker 1: I think the thing we have to remember is the
Speaker 1: moment the company launches it. There's probably a scoreboard somewhere,
Speaker 1: and whether it's on screen in every meeting, whether it's
Speaker 1: in an office, there is a scoreboard somebody's keeping track of.
Speaker 1: Is everybody getting on the train and starting to sell
Speaker 1: the new thing, which I get it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: understand it, We've invested in it and all of that,
Speaker 1: but that is a factor that is in the brains
Speaker 1: of the seller, right who's thinking, Okay, I'm on the
Speaker 1: hook for this, and the way you kick this off,
Speaker 1: I think, so we just have to remember that that's
Speaker 1: a part of what's going on in somebody's brain. But
Speaker 1: I think there at the same time, there are a
Speaker 1: couple of temptations we have to be really aware of
Speaker 1: and reminded of careful of. And the first is the
Speaker 1: temptation to run out to the marketplace with all of
Speaker 1: the new product info and the messaging from the product
Speaker 1: and marketing teams, because we're so excited about what we've
Speaker 1: now got sometimes that we can forget that there could
Speaker 1: be two or three things happen inside of our customers.
Speaker 1: Either the market doesn't know so they're a little overwhelmed
Speaker 1: by what we show up with, right the market isn't
Speaker 1: even ready for it, whether it's the message or the
Speaker 1: thing itself, or they see it as just catch up
Speaker 1: to the competition. So there's that. I think the other
Speaker 1: thing we have to think about, and the temptation we
Speaker 1: have to be careful of, is over promising. By the
Speaker 1: way I've done all of these right, making these mistakes.
Speaker 1: Marketing and product do a great job of creating the hype,
Speaker 1: and they should do that like it's important to do that,
Speaker 1: and it's done for all the right reasons. We just
Speaker 1: need to be honest with ourselves about what we've got
Speaker 1: in our hands what we've been given, because we're the
Speaker 1: ones who are carrying that forward, and it's going to
Speaker 1: be our personal, not just our company's credibility that gets
Speaker 1: impacted by this, positively or negatively, especially if we don't deliver.
Speaker 1: So those I think that are the two big mindset pieces.
Speaker 1: I would remind.
Speaker 3: People of right good ways to frame any training or
Speaker 3: whatever that you're going to go through with the new product.
Speaker 3: And that's when when the enablement's happening, there's key questions
Speaker 3: you should be asking ourselves.
Speaker 1: Yep. So everybody on this podcast knows us at some
Speaker 1: level or another, so they won't be surprised to hear
Speaker 1: me say this. This is a perfect time to remember
Speaker 1: the outside in mentality. It's about the custom stomer stupid, right,
Speaker 1: that's the old it's the economy stupid, it's the customer stupid.
Speaker 1: So I think the questions and I'm not calling them
Speaker 1: any of the audience stupid. It's just a reminder, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's like, these are the big three questions. The first
Speaker 1: question is what problems are we truly solving from our
Speaker 1: customers with this thing that we've created. What outcomes can
Speaker 1: we drive as a result or maybe said a different way.
Speaker 1: What will this help the customer achieve that they haven't
Speaker 1: even thought about? So pulling outcomes further out than they
Speaker 1: would have on their own. And then there's two or
Speaker 1: three questions I think that go together, and there's this
Speaker 1: concept of how is what I'm about to bring to
Speaker 1: the market going to change the customer's buying journey? Does
Speaker 1: it replace multiple things? Will this require a new mindset
Speaker 1: for the customer not just us? Are there new players
Speaker 1: that are going to have to get involved that we
Speaker 1: haven't talked to before? And oh, by the way, how
Speaker 1: is the customer going to think about that? I was
Speaker 1: with a customer recently and in the process of helping
Speaker 1: them build out a bunch of content, they realize there
Speaker 1: is a key person in the C suite that is
Speaker 1: going to be at the table going forward that they
Speaker 1: have never talked to really in the past. And it's
Speaker 1: going to be a departure not just for them, but
Speaker 1: also for their customers because people inside of the customers
Speaker 1: organizations are going to have to pull this. This person's
Speaker 1: come in one way or the other, so they're going
Speaker 1: to have to pull them in. So it's going to
Speaker 1: change not just who we have to talk to, but
Speaker 1: who the customer has got to get engaged with, and
Speaker 1: that can change some do some funny things to the
Speaker 1: minds inside of our customers as well, not just ourselves.
Speaker 1: So that's how I think about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, an additional player, as you say, also goes back
Speaker 3: to asking the question, when you think through what problems
Speaker 3: did this product solve, how is a customer going to
Speaker 3: get value from this, Who is the ideal customer profile
Speaker 3: for this product, and how does it play with other
Speaker 3: things that you're selling, because that what we call the
Speaker 3: ICP ideal customer profile may shift a bit depending on
Speaker 3: what it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it can change the whole game. They can literally change.
Speaker 1: You may come to market it was something that if
Speaker 1: you really dig into it, you may say, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: We're about to literally change how a company does business,
Speaker 1: which means these four or five or six things that
Speaker 1: they had today that all kind of happened at different
Speaker 1: points in time for all the right reasons, those aren't
Speaker 1: even needed anymore. So maybe I'm going from six to one,
Speaker 1: and now I'm impacting six different silos and all not
Speaker 1: only the people inside of those silos, but one or
Speaker 1: two people above them. Who see a bigger pick like
Speaker 1: this can change the whole dynamic. And you, if you
Speaker 1: don't think through that, you can really get yourself into
Speaker 1: trouble in terms of a missing the larger opportunity in
Speaker 1: the marketplace and b making it harder for you to
Speaker 1: even land the deals that you thought might be easy
Speaker 1: to land.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great perspective. And I think you know
Speaker 3: you mentioned over promising right at the beginning. There are
Speaker 3: some unknowns when there are new products, right, they try
Speaker 3: to think of everything, but things come up and there's
Speaker 3: new use cases, right, And so when you're having these
Speaker 3: conversations with your customer, you should also approach these conversations
Speaker 3: with curiosity, just like any any sales conversation. So are
Speaker 3: your best tips here for validating the product?
Speaker 1: So I think the unknowns is good, and we kind
Speaker 1: of hit on one with the new players, right, Who
Speaker 1: are the new people that are getting into all this
Speaker 1: and how is that going to impact the customer's buying
Speaker 1: process and buying journey, et cetera. But there are some
Speaker 1: other unknowns. And when I think about getting a new
Speaker 1: product in my hand, I was one of the people
Speaker 1: that I learned from a fellow seller, I would retech
Speaker 1: our technical manuals so that I had a sense of
Speaker 1: what we were really doing and why we were doing
Speaker 1: it and how it worked, so I could kind of
Speaker 1: get deep into it with the right people inside of
Speaker 1: the customers organization. So and then the other thing I
Speaker 1: would do with a brand new product is I would
Speaker 1: get into our beta testing. I'd want to understand, you know,
Speaker 1: what did we do up to this point, to fully
Speaker 1: understand how this new thing is landing? What have we
Speaker 1: learned about that, and what have we done about what
Speaker 1: improvements or tweaks have we made? What's still outstanding both
Speaker 1: known and unknown? Right, we found this, here's what we're
Speaker 1: doing about it. We're still not too sure about this? Right?
Speaker 1: And then am I whether I'm reading the technical specs
Speaker 1: or not, but am I the seller? Am I really
Speaker 1: educating myself deeply on all of this and to your point,
Speaker 1: the new use cases and some of the other things
Speaker 1: we talked about, new players, et cetera. Or am I
Speaker 1: just reading the headlines, because if you're just reading the headlines,
Speaker 1: you're going to miss out every single time. Like you've
Speaker 1: got this is a time for you to go deep
Speaker 1: on all of the work. That product and marketing have
Speaker 1: done to get you ready. I think these questions all
Speaker 1: the way back to the previous question we were answering
Speaker 1: and now kind of adding on here. I think these
Speaker 1: questions in the end really will help you think through
Speaker 1: where am I going to go first with this, because
Speaker 1: you've got to be careful where you go, right, got
Speaker 1: to go to your friendlies. You got to go to
Speaker 1: your early adopters, and that's that that even has a bifurcation.
Speaker 1: You got to go to the folks that are going
Speaker 1: to be willing to put up with some of the
Speaker 1: little things that might happen with a new product release
Speaker 1: versus those that aren't aren't up for that or aren't
Speaker 1: built that way. And definitely staying away from your skeptics
Speaker 1: and your cynics until you really know whether or not
Speaker 1: you got something that's really viable and is going to
Speaker 1: really make hay. So those are some of the other
Speaker 1: unknowns that I think about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned the specs right, the technical features.
Speaker 3: And I know a lot of people that are listening
Speaker 3: now are in selling software and their company is rolling
Speaker 3: out new AI.
Speaker 1: Well everybody's rolling out of there, right software or not? Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So You may have a traditional product that you
Speaker 3: have been selling and now there's these new features or
Speaker 3: it's powered by AI, and everybody's talking about it. So
Speaker 3: one you got to figure out how you're going to
Speaker 3: differentiate that conversation. Even if the features are cool in
Speaker 3: a demo, right, and most of them are, how do
Speaker 3: you make sure that you're having the right conversations you're
Speaker 3: selling these new features right with the same value based discipline,
Speaker 3: the right discipline and the right mindset.
Speaker 1: Well, AI is a great example, right, And I already
Speaker 1: mentioned this a little bit earlier with the outside in mindset,
Speaker 1: and I think it goes back to that, right, So
Speaker 1: I want to be very careful how I say this,
Speaker 1: so I know anybody to jump on me. But everybody's
Speaker 1: already got AI in some form of fashion. Everybody's already
Speaker 1: talking about AI and their products. So it's almost reaching
Speaker 1: table stakes levels to an extent. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: customers are scared. Everybody's scared about AI, even though they
Speaker 1: also know it's here and it's coming. They're all and
Speaker 1: you know the look they're always going to be. There's
Speaker 1: always going to be part of your Undis's scared when
Speaker 1: you got something new but this time it's just a
Speaker 1: bit more exaggerated, right and rightly so. So I think
Speaker 1: you got to keep in mind again, whether we're using
Speaker 1: AI as the example or something different that's differentiated, you've
Speaker 1: got to keep in mind the keys to setting up
Speaker 1: your cool stuff right, all your differentiation. And the first key,
Speaker 1: and maybe the most important key, is having a conversation
Speaker 1: that sets up topics with customers because you've got their
Speaker 1: best interest at heart. I'm getting you to think about
Speaker 1: things that matter, not a capability like something that we
Speaker 1: drive with AI, but an outcome that that solves because
Speaker 1: it's for it. It gives you this topic around that
Speaker 1: outcome gives you a better chance of achieving that outcome
Speaker 1: right and making the best choice. So I think if
Speaker 1: you can keep your conversations focused on what's the customer
Speaker 1: trying to achieve, both long term, short term and what's
Speaker 1: best for them and their business, it's a much better
Speaker 1: chance for you when you pivot to talk about the
Speaker 1: new thing that you've got to pivot to. Here's the
Speaker 1: new thing I've got, and more importantly, here's how that
Speaker 1: gives you a better chance of getting to that outcome
Speaker 1: we just talked about it's just like any other differentiation.
Speaker 1: It's setting it up so that when I pivot to
Speaker 1: talk about it, it's a means. That differentiation is a
Speaker 1: means to an important end for the customer, whether it's
Speaker 1: revenue lift or whatever it might be.
Speaker 3: Right, the outcomes that they're trying to drive, and also
Speaker 3: the organizational priorities that they have.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so maybe it's not the connect it's not just
Speaker 1: the old line. That's the economy stupid. It's the customer.
Speaker 1: It's the outcome, right, It's the outcome matters.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's really that mindset you need to have
Speaker 3: when your enablement team, your product team says, hey, sales team,
Speaker 3: guess what, here's what here's what we got. Yeah, wrap
Speaker 3: us up, Brian with the bottom line or a key
Speaker 3: takeaway as we close.
Speaker 1: So and please listen carefully to this, folks, because, especially
Speaker 1: if you're in marketing and product listening to this. I
Speaker 1: want you as sellers to embrace your company's new ideas.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm saying that loud and clear. I love
Speaker 1: running to the market with new ideas and new things
Speaker 1: to talk about. I just think we as sellers have
Speaker 1: to remember that our job first and foremost is to
Speaker 1: think about out and lead with what matters to the customer,
Speaker 1: their people, their customers, right, our customers, customers and their
Speaker 1: business before we just go running out with a new message,
Speaker 1: like that new message is powerful, Like don't waste it
Speaker 1: by throwing it out there in the hopes that it lands.
Speaker 1: Like lead up to it, you know, become a better
Speaker 1: storyteller through the conversations that you have and the points
Speaker 1: of view that you put down, so that when you
Speaker 1: do pivot to that new thing, it's got a lot
Speaker 1: more value because it's coming out of your mouth to
Speaker 1: solve for them, their people, their customers, their business. That's
Speaker 1: my take.
Speaker 3: That's it, Brian Walsh, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Thanks Rachel, Yes, and.
Speaker 3: Thank you to all of you for listening to the
Speaker 3: Audible Ready Sales podcast.
Speaker 4: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 4: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 4: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the
Speaker 4: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 4: Our strength is our experience, The proof is in our results.
Speaker 4: Let's get started. Visit us at forestmanagement dot com.
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