Speaker 1: No matter what we do, we should always be outside
Speaker 1: of the first meeting. We should always make it about
Speaker 1: the buyer before we earn the right to make it
Speaker 1: all about our products and services.
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.
Speaker 1: Let's get started.
Speaker 3: Hello, Welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel
Speaker 3: klett Miller, joined today by John Kaplan. Hi, John, Rachel,
Speaker 3: how are you good? Good? A good podcast today, John.
Speaker 1: Yes, looking forward to it.
Speaker 3: We do nothing less right always, But today we are
Speaker 3: going to talk about executing a single selling motion. You know,
Speaker 3: a lot of times, as sales reps, we're giving a
Speaker 3: lot of tools, tactics, technology, processes to follow, and the
Speaker 3: challenge can come from how do you, as a rep
Speaker 3: pull all of these tools together fluidly and in a
Speaker 3: way where you don't feel like you're just piling on
Speaker 3: process after tool after tool. And John, I know you
Speaker 3: get this question a lot from reps who have gone
Speaker 3: through several of our programs at a force management. So
Speaker 3: let's just start with your high level advice about how
Speaker 3: to maneuver that.
Speaker 1: First of all, I think the I do get the
Speaker 1: question a lot, and I think I'm getting a lot
Speaker 1: more lately because of all the implications with a lot
Speaker 1: of these AI tools for sales assistance and all kinds
Speaker 1: of stuff that are coming down the pike, and I
Speaker 1: think there is a general kind of concern that it
Speaker 1: may complicate the selling motion. And it sure seems like
Speaker 1: the world is just trying to make this topic pretty complicated.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm against AI apps slowly for AI,
Speaker 1: but I think you really have to make sure that
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, you are simplifying what
Speaker 1: you're asking a seller to do and simplifying the motion
Speaker 1: for the seller and the buyer. Let's talk about that
Speaker 1: a little bit today. How can we simplify it right.
Speaker 3: From really that rep PERSONA, because you can really get
Speaker 3: bogged down in using a lot of these tools, and
Speaker 3: you want to use it in a way that benefits
Speaker 3: you and benefits your buyer and benefits the sales process.
Speaker 3: So we're going to kind of frame this conversation today
Speaker 3: as it relates to the tools that we use at
Speaker 3: force management and what we do. So if you haven't
Speaker 3: gone through any of the force management methodologies, first.
Speaker 1: Check us out.
Speaker 3: But if you haven't, just you can kind of supplement
Speaker 3: our ideas for the tools that you use. So let's
Speaker 3: just kind of level said John. Let's say you learn
Speaker 3: command of the message and you have your value framework
Speaker 3: to help with that value based conversation. Then let's say
Speaker 3: you go through commanded the sale and now you as
Speaker 3: a rep have the tools to align that framework with
Speaker 3: your organization's customer engagement process and perhaps the qualification process
Speaker 3: like medic And then you may have a negotiation training,
Speaker 3: so you've got an negotiation framework. So you've got a
Speaker 3: lot of tools here to help you execute. How am
Speaker 3: I pulling these together in one single motion?
Speaker 1: It's a really good question. I'll try to do this
Speaker 1: in a way that it doesn't matter if you have
Speaker 1: an experience forced management methodology. So let's begin with the
Speaker 1: concept of an outside in versus an inside out approach.
Speaker 1: So no matter what we do, we should always be
Speaker 1: outside in the first, meaning we should always make it
Speaker 1: about the buyer before we earn the right to make
Speaker 1: it all about our products and services. So if we
Speaker 1: talk about this concept of emotion, I like to think
Speaker 1: about it like a golf swing, where there's a takeaway
Speaker 1: first and then there's a forward delivery motion. If you're
Speaker 1: not a golfer, if you just think about throwing a ball,
Speaker 1: you first kind of position yourself, you take your arm back,
Speaker 1: and then you move it forward. If you think about bowling,
Speaker 1: if you think about cricket, if I don't care what
Speaker 1: you think about, there's this takeaway motion which builds momentum,
Speaker 1: and then there's a follow through and a delivery motion.
Speaker 1: So let's stay on this topic of emotion. Let's think
Speaker 1: about the mechanics of this takeaway and of the delivery,
Speaker 1: because let's start with the takeaway. So I want you
Speaker 1: to think of the takeaway as discovery with the buyer,
Speaker 1: where we are gathering information and before we can effectively
Speaker 1: deliver something talk about us, we need to finish the takeaway.
Speaker 1: So it's just like you look at like Google Charles
Speaker 1: Barkley golf swing. When you don't have a full takeaway,
Speaker 1: then you have a very suspect delivery and things full,
Speaker 1: things will go wrong. So we want you to just
Speaker 1: think about having a full takeaway where in the selling motion.
Speaker 1: I like to think of that takeaway as like filling
Speaker 1: up three buckets of information. Every time I sit down
Speaker 1: with a customer, I am building three buckets of discovery information,
Speaker 1: positive business outcomes. What are the business outcomes that this
Speaker 1: customer is trying to achieve? Required capabilities is the same
Speaker 1: as like the technical decision criteria, but without positive business
Speaker 1: outcomes you miss a real opportunity to create urgency. So
Speaker 1: the technical required capabilities are where we connect positive business
Speaker 1: outcomes and technical decision criteria. And then the third is metrics.
Speaker 1: How is the customer going to measure success? Okay, so
Speaker 1: the first part of the motion the takeaway. I'm asking
Speaker 1: questions about positive business outcomes, I'm asking questions about technical
Speaker 1: required capabilities, and I'm asking questions about how the customer
Speaker 1: will measure success from a metrics point of view. That's
Speaker 1: the takeaway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, as you said, John, that first part of
Speaker 3: the motion is the discovery where we're gathering the information
Speaker 3: from our buyer. You mentioned it, positive business outcomes, required
Speaker 3: capabilities or solution requirements, and metrics. Those are the gifts
Speaker 3: of gold. Right allow you to align what you do
Speaker 3: with what they need. So you're making it all about
Speaker 3: them before we make it all about us. So now
Speaker 3: talk about that delivery part of the motion, that back half.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So just like any any golf swing or any
Speaker 1: motion that relies on what you do, and the takeaway
Speaker 1: totally impacts what you do on the delivery. So if
Speaker 1: we think about the downswing or the follow through up
Speaker 1: a golf swing, now we have taken away positive business outcomes,
Speaker 1: require capabilities and metrics, and now we're going to face
Speaker 1: the target and deliver to the target because we've earned
Speaker 1: the right to talk about these three things, which are
Speaker 1: how we do those required capabilities. So why would you
Speaker 1: talk about your products and services in any other way
Speaker 1: than what the customer said was required. So we call
Speaker 1: that required capabilities in the takeaway. In the delivery, we
Speaker 1: talk about delivering. How we do that and how we
Speaker 1: do that? That is the required capabilities. It will really
Speaker 1: help you stay aligned. Then I have to talk about, well,
Speaker 1: how do we do those require capabilities different or better
Speaker 1: than everybody else. This is our differentiation. It's here where
Speaker 1: we influence those decision criteria or those technical require capabilities
Speaker 1: with our differentiators, and then we finished the swing with
Speaker 1: a great follow through where we talk about our proof points,
Speaker 1: where have we done it before, case studies, testimonials. These
Speaker 1: aren't brand names. This isn't a logo slide. This is
Speaker 1: we had this customer that had this problem, that was
Speaker 1: trying to accomplish this. They had these technical requirements. They
Speaker 1: measured those requirements this way. Here's how they measured that six,
Speaker 1: here's how we did that, Here's how we did it
Speaker 1: differently or better, and here were the results. Now, that
Speaker 1: is an unbelievably great golf SLNK and at Forced Management
Speaker 1: we call that the mantra. So there's three things you
Speaker 1: take away. Possitive business outcomes require capabilities and metrics, and
Speaker 1: there's three things you deliver back in every sales conversation,
Speaker 1: which is how we do it, how we do it
Speaker 1: differently or better, and where we've done it before exactly.
Speaker 3: And that's a really great way to simplify what you
Speaker 3: need in those sales conversation, the three things you need
Speaker 3: and then the three things you need to deliver. So
Speaker 3: that's the motion for the sales conversation. Talk about how
Speaker 3: that fits into a sales process and the tools we
Speaker 3: have for our sales process.
Speaker 1: That's a great question because I think the sales process
Speaker 1: should be totally dependent upon the sales conversation that you're
Speaker 1: trying to build, and I call that the ultimate summation.
Speaker 1: And so if we are trying to build this mantra,
Speaker 1: the same thing that we're doing in a sales conversation,
Speaker 1: we are actually building throughout. You know, it's a great
Speaker 1: flow for a sales process. So it's a couple of
Speaker 1: hygiene points on sales process. First, sales process need to
Speaker 1: be aligned to how a buyer buys. First thing, we
Speaker 1: should look at us how does the buyer buy? And
Speaker 1: most buyers go through some kind of discovery or requirements phase,
Speaker 1: then they move into some type of evaluating options phase.
Speaker 1: They then move into some type of justification phase or
Speaker 1: a decision phase, and then an implementation phase, et cetera.
Speaker 1: So whatever those are, a sales process should align to
Speaker 1: those buyer stages, and we should think of it as
Speaker 1: we are helping the customer build out this mantra. So
Speaker 1: customers in their buying process, they'd better be thinking about
Speaker 1: what impact is this going to have on our business?
Speaker 1: What are the technical PBOs by the way, What are
Speaker 1: the technical required capabilities that we're going to be How
Speaker 1: are we going to measure success? Who's out there that
Speaker 1: can do this, how do they do it? How did
Speaker 1: they do it differently or better than everybody else? And
Speaker 1: where's the proof? So if you look at it, Rachel,
Speaker 1: that mantra of that swing is actually represents not only
Speaker 1: the sales conversation, but it also represents the things that
Speaker 1: you go through to build that out into you know
Speaker 1: what I'm going to call later here is the ultimate
Speaker 1: summation that should show up. Okay, how do we get
Speaker 1: the customer to attach to the biggest business issue that
Speaker 1: they're facing that's in your sales process. How do we
Speaker 1: establish the decision criteria or the required capabilities and attach
Speaker 1: our differentiation to it to make it more favorable for us?
Speaker 1: How's the customer going to measure success? How are we
Speaker 1: going to validate that? It's all in the sales process.
Speaker 1: So they're really not separate processes. They're the same. There's
Speaker 1: just ones at an uber level and a conversation, and
Speaker 1: the other one is how it manifests itself and what
Speaker 1: you do in activities every day, which is your sales process.
Speaker 3: Right, exactly. So that's a great way to kind of
Speaker 3: break it down. So all of these tools that you
Speaker 3: have at your disposal, discovery guides, value frameworks, value pyramids,
Speaker 3: negotiation planners, close plans, implementation plans, whatever you got, think
Speaker 3: of those as tools to build the mantra, as John
Speaker 3: talked about, as it relates to your sales conversations and
Speaker 3: then the activities that you're doing throughout the day. Did
Speaker 3: I get that right, John.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I think for the golf swing or the mantra,
Speaker 1: I call this I called it earlier, I called it
Speaker 1: the ultimate summation. I want to really give it a name.
Speaker 1: So it's the ultimate summation of creating and delivering value.
Speaker 1: All those tools that you just mentioned, they are all
Speaker 1: a manifestation of those critical components of the mantra. Positive
Speaker 1: business outcomes. Technical required capabilities that are highly differentiated for us,
Speaker 1: how the customer's going to measure success and it should
Speaker 1: be very favorable for us, obviously very favorable to the customer.
Speaker 1: How we do that specifically, the technical required capabilities? How
Speaker 1: do we do it differently or better than anybody else where?
Speaker 1: Have we done it before? This becomes the focus of
Speaker 1: everything that we do. Skip one of those things and
Speaker 1: go google Charles Barkley's golf swing. You skip any one
Speaker 1: of those three takeaways or three deliveries, and you're going
Speaker 1: to have a choppy swing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, Johen, A lot of this really
Speaker 3: comes into finding your own style to use these tools,
Speaker 3: but you want to make sure you understand how each
Speaker 3: plays a role in executing with the customer, right. That
Speaker 3: is important. Focus on the customer and everything else sort
Speaker 3: of falls into place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, sticking with this theme of golf, I
Speaker 1: go to the range to practice a lot, and I'll
Speaker 1: see people with different tools. I'll see people with things
Speaker 1: around their wrists, things around their legs, different technology that
Speaker 1: they're using. It's all pointed at trying to be better
Speaker 1: at getting that ball closer to the whole, closer to
Speaker 1: the fair way. It's all aimed at doing the outcome.
Speaker 1: Not everybody uses all of those. Now, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that you don't have to use the tools that the
Speaker 1: company gives you. But if I'm better at some part
Speaker 1: of the execution, I focus on the other areas of
Speaker 1: the execution. I focus on what I do well. I
Speaker 1: focus on minimizing what I don't do well. So what
Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you is there's all these tools
Speaker 1: that they can bring and continue to bring. It's all
Speaker 1: to get you closer to a customer, to attach yourself
Speaker 1: to the biggest business issues facing that customer, to allow
Speaker 1: you to influence decision criteria, to make it more favorable
Speaker 1: for you, and to allow you to be a voracious qualifier.
Speaker 1: So when you think about it, we got the takeaway.
Speaker 1: You got three things you're taking away. Positive business outcomes
Speaker 1: require capabilities and metrics. And once I have that, I
Speaker 1: can pivot and I can start my down swim or
Speaker 1: my delivery to my customer, and I can tell them
Speaker 1: how we do it, how we do it differently or better,
Speaker 1: and where we've done it before. Again at Force Management,
Speaker 1: we call this motion the mantra, and we're not only
Speaker 1: building a great sales conversation, but we're also doing that
Speaker 1: through utilizing a great process of engagement or sales process,
Speaker 1: which is basically how the matra comes alive and the
Speaker 1: activities of what we do. So hopefully that we didn't
Speaker 1: confuse you with golf swings and analogies and that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, but our goal was to help you simplify it.
Speaker 1: Take away three things from a customer, deliver three things
Speaker 1: back to a customer, and you should be on really
Speaker 1: golden ground right.
Speaker 3: And that's a great reset for the week. Thank you, John,
Speaker 3: my pleasure go get them right, and thank you to
Speaker 3: all of you for listening to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
Speaker 3: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 3: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 3: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your t the
Speaker 3: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 3: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 3: Let's get started. Visit us at forestmanagement dot com.
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