Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast. I'm
Speaker 1: Rachel Klett Miller. Quick here at the top. Have you
Speaker 1: checked out a sender mad a sender dot co. If
Speaker 1: you like the content we're putting out on the podcast,
Speaker 1: you'll love the content we're publishing on a sender almost
Speaker 1: every day. Be sure to check it out. Brian Walsh
Speaker 1: is joining me today to dive into a topic that
Speaker 1: I think a lot of you are dealing with.
Speaker 2: Hi, Brian, Hello, Rachel. Hello.
Speaker 1: All right, So today we are going to talk about
Speaker 1: pilot projects. Some of you may be in those sales process.
Speaker 1: You're in these meetings, you feel like you got a
Speaker 1: great position here to move a deal forward, and the
Speaker 1: customer says, hey, let's just try a pilot project first. So, Brian,
Speaker 1: I know we're going to kind of dive in and
Speaker 1: how you deal with that and how to counteract that
Speaker 1: and when you want to do it and when you don't.
Speaker 1: But first, let's talk about why these projects pop up
Speaker 1: and make their way into our sales caps.
Speaker 2: Okay, So the obvious answer is the economy, right, It's
Speaker 2: the it's it's the old line from politics, it's the economy. Stupid. Uh,
Speaker 2: so that wasn't at you right, correct? Yeah, But you
Speaker 2: know everything's got more pressure, everything's got more heat and light,
Speaker 2: everything's got more people involved or you know, fingers in
Speaker 2: the in the pie. And that's typically the number one reason.
Speaker 2: But even if it's not the economy, this happens all
Speaker 2: the time, even when the economy is good. And I
Speaker 2: think that's one of the big questions, right, So I
Speaker 2: I know we can go deeper here in a second,
Speaker 2: but the why is always the first question I got
Speaker 2: to ask myself, is that really what's happening in this
Speaker 2: moment in time? Because in this moment in time, it'd
Speaker 2: be easy when somebody says, oh, I think we need
Speaker 2: to do a pilot, to just assume, oh, it's the economy,
Speaker 2: but it might not be especially and so even I
Speaker 2: it's I'm like, this is my nephew economy. When the
Speaker 2: county is good, it's definitely not the economy. So the
Speaker 2: first question is, well, why, what's the why behind that?
Speaker 2: Is this a political landscape conversation. Is it a resources
Speaker 2: conversation other than money, like people or time? Is it
Speaker 2: is it a competing project with a completely different alternative?
Speaker 2: Is it a competitive conversation. So digging under the covers
Speaker 2: to get to the why, I think is always the
Speaker 2: first place to start.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's reasons why you may want to move
Speaker 1: them forward. And if we look at the why, why
Speaker 1: would we want to move why, is it a good
Speaker 1: reason to take on a pilot?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Okay, so I think there are four things. It's
Speaker 2: the who, the why, the how, and the when. And
Speaker 2: doing a pilot for any of the wrong reasons against
Speaker 2: these four questions is never a good idea. And it
Speaker 2: often happens because we have a tendency to react to
Speaker 2: a request because we are good people, we're problem solvers,
Speaker 2: and we want to react to a requests instead of
Speaker 2: stopping and really thinking through all of those factors. Right.
Speaker 2: So with that in mind, it's also a chance in
Speaker 2: that moment when this idea of a pilot comes up
Speaker 2: to also frame the negotiation that's happening before the customer
Speaker 2: even realizes we're negotiating. Now, that might be a conversation
Speaker 2: for another day, but I will say this, we have
Speaker 2: a tendency, as they said, as sellers, to give things
Speaker 2: away without thinking about it because we're solving, like we
Speaker 2: want to help, we're givers. As you know, I like
Speaker 2: to say, but remember every request that comes from a customer,
Speaker 2: including something like this, Hey, let's little pilot, you know,
Speaker 2: you know whatever, especially if it's veil right. You don't
Speaker 2: know why, right, But this is a chance to expand
Speaker 2: the conversation and begin to trade. And so when you
Speaker 2: do that consistently, when you expand the conversation before you
Speaker 2: respond and start to trade on things of value, you're
Speaker 2: actually keeping others in this case the customer, that you
Speaker 2: will never just roll over and give something, but instead
Speaker 2: you'll always look to find ways to create more value
Speaker 2: for both sides before you decide whether or not. In
Speaker 2: this case, the ask of a pilot is a good
Speaker 2: idea for both of us.
Speaker 1: So once you've assessed that, what do you need to
Speaker 1: do as a salesperson? And you know some of this
Speaker 1: is like an implementation of part But what do you
Speaker 1: need to do to increase the likelihood that these pilot
Speaker 1: projects will lead to a more permanent solution.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's stay on our four factors. You might just
Speaker 2: write like it's the who, the why, the how, and
Speaker 2: the when. Right, let's just kind of break each one
Speaker 2: of these down. On the who conversation. I got to
Speaker 2: be asking myself some questions. Who's this person in the
Speaker 2: organization who's asking for this? How much power and influence
Speaker 2: do they have? And what part of the buying decisions
Speaker 2: the economic buying, the technical buying, or just like the
Speaker 2: and when I say just it's not to discount or
Speaker 2: the implementation part of the decision. And are are will
Speaker 2: other people listen to this person? Right? Is this person
Speaker 2: a coach or are they more than that? Are they
Speaker 2: a potential or even a current champion? So those are
Speaker 2: some of the examples of what I've got to be
Speaker 2: asking myself and my team about the who. Then there's
Speaker 2: the why, like what's the real objective of this pilot?
Speaker 2: How are we going to measure the ultimate success? Now
Speaker 2: that this is important, how are we going to measure
Speaker 2: the ultimate success of a pilot? Is one thing, right,
Speaker 2: A six week or a six month pilot has got
Speaker 2: some sort of finish line objectives rights positive business outcomes,
Speaker 2: as we like to say. But the other thing you
Speaker 2: got to have in place is are short term metrics?
Speaker 2: So what are the metrics we have in place to
Speaker 2: ensure that we can course correct during the pilot If
Speaker 2: we're not on track. Right, if I got a three
Speaker 2: month or six on pilot, I better have some shorter
Speaker 2: term metrics in place that tell us whether or not
Speaker 2: this is on track. And this is a critical question
Speaker 2: because without these metrics, you're starting at point A in
Speaker 2: the hopes of getting the point Z with nothing in
Speaker 2: between you to tell you whether not you're still on track.
Speaker 2: And that's never that rarely, rarely turns into anything more
Speaker 2: than like, you know, let's go to church and light
Speaker 2: a candle and the hopes that we get a great outcome. Right.
Speaker 2: And then then there's the how, like so around the
Speaker 2: concept of how, what's the specific plan to include players
Speaker 2: from both sides, the responsibilities, the date, et cetera. Who's
Speaker 2: the sponsor like this of this pilot and what are
Speaker 2: their objectives and level of buy in? How are we
Speaker 2: going to keep everyone informed in a consistent fashion, What
Speaker 2: happens if one side or the other is not holding
Speaker 2: up their end of the bargain? And how will we
Speaker 2: communicate results and move forward based on success or any
Speaker 2: lack thereof. So like, there's all of that going on.
Speaker 2: It's the who, it's the what, it's the well, how
Speaker 2: are we going to make sure this happens. And then
Speaker 2: last but not least, maybe the easier, easiest of the ford.
Speaker 2: But the answer is the when, like, what are the
Speaker 2: real timelines for this pilot? Are those appropriate and achievable?
Speaker 2: And what happens if those timelines aren't met by either side?
Speaker 2: I think there's a level of detail that you've got
Speaker 2: to go into if you're going to do a pilot.
Speaker 2: And oh, by the way, this applies to somebody asking
Speaker 2: for a proof of concept, right, it's very similar, right,
Speaker 2: very similar, but even more so here because the money
Speaker 2: is now on the line. There's more money on the
Speaker 2: line with a pilot than there is even with a trial, right,
Speaker 2: or a proof of concept. So those are the questions
Speaker 2: I'm asking myself or my teammates if we're really trying
Speaker 2: to consider whether or not a pilot is a good idea.
Speaker 1: Great questions. I hope those of you who are getting
Speaker 1: this question a lot from your prospects or writing those down.
Speaker 1: I want to go back to when you were talking
Speaker 1: about the why the metrics conversation. Talk a lot about metrics,
Speaker 1: getting metrics as part of your sales process, with or
Speaker 1: without a pilot project. Right, how are we measuring success,
Speaker 1: and sometimes it can be difficult to get those nailed down.
Speaker 1: So I want to talk a little bit about that, because,
Speaker 1: as you said, it's really critical when we're dealing with
Speaker 1: these pilot projects. So how do I, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better term, force the metrics to that outcome conversation
Speaker 1: with my customer? How do I get my customer to
Speaker 1: see the importance of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a really important point, Rachel. And it's
Speaker 2: actually another example of negotiation as a skill that we're
Speaker 2: going to pull on throughout the entire opportunity pursuit. There
Speaker 2: is a cost to a pilot, right, and there's a
Speaker 2: cost to both thoughts. So I would not shy away
Speaker 2: from the question you've it's really really critical. I know
Speaker 2: already mentioned it. But without metrics, both short and long
Speaker 2: term metrics, right, pilots often turn into nothing more than
Speaker 2: science experiments. Yeah, and hey, I'll be the first permit.
Speaker 2: And sometimes the science experiment is okay. Sometimes we want
Speaker 2: to do a science experiment as much as the custom Right,
Speaker 2: it's right, we got something new, we're looking for early adopters, whatever,
Speaker 2: But paf that and choosing to do with science experiment purposefully,
Speaker 2: and even then there should be metrics, you know, the
Speaker 2: back of the majority of time, no metrics equals no decisions.
Speaker 2: And I think that's the key, because you know a
Speaker 2: lot of times pilots are being run by technical buyers,
Speaker 2: and eventually they're the ones who have to go to
Speaker 2: the economic buying audience and ask for more money or
Speaker 2: real money to take the pilot to a larger scale.
Speaker 2: And if you can't answer the business questions that the
Speaker 2: economic buyer cares about, you got yourself with science experiment,
Speaker 2: and as good as your technical buyer I might feel
Speaker 2: about it, it ain't going anywhere else. So you know,
Speaker 2: someone who doesn't want to have a metric conversation is
Speaker 2: a red flag for me. Yep, And I won't do
Speaker 2: the pilot in that case because without success measures and
Speaker 2: an identified sponsor as appropriate level, we're just all kind
Speaker 2: of spin in our wheels. Now, I want to be clear.
Speaker 2: If somebody calls me and says, hey, I have X
Speaker 2: amount of money to spend and I have to spend
Speaker 2: it today by five o'clock, do you want it? Okay?
Speaker 2: I'm not suggesting you should say no, take the deal
Speaker 2: off the street. I'm good with that, but you've got
Speaker 2: to at least understand that if you want this to
Speaker 2: turn into something bigger, Right, if this is an opportunity
Speaker 2: or an account where there's more runway for us, before
Speaker 2: you take that fifty thousand dollars or one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars or whatever they have to spend, you better have
Speaker 2: a couple of these conversations in your in your back pocket.
Speaker 2: Need to have Hey, how are we going to measure
Speaker 2: the success of the use of this bend? Because I
Speaker 2: want to help you look good inside of your organization.
Speaker 2: That's all. Like, we don't have to overcomplicate this. Yeah
Speaker 2: we might if it's a twelve million dollar deal, but
Speaker 2: if it's you know, I just want to make sure
Speaker 2: I'm sending that message. You know, everything is appropriate. How's
Speaker 2: that right? Yeah, we're not above that. Yeah that's right.
Speaker 1: No, no metrics, no decision, no successes. Are great takeaways
Speaker 1: from that little segment there. Okay, Brian, what sort of
Speaker 1: things am I doing along the way through implementation of
Speaker 1: the pilot to make sure we're holding tight to what
Speaker 1: was promised in the beginning to keep reminding the customer
Speaker 1: of you know, the endgame here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great question, And I might have said this earlier
Speaker 2: or pointed to it earlier. But I think there are
Speaker 2: just three things to remember.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: One, you've got to have agreed upon process steps right again,
Speaker 2: short term metrics that we can constantly stay on top
Speaker 2: of so that we can fourth correct if required. And
Speaker 2: these have to be visible, tangible, and or measurable, right,
Speaker 2: That's the first thing. The second is you've got to
Speaker 2: have agreed upon, assigned and aligned roles that have clear
Speaker 2: responsibility from both sides, right. And then, last, but not least,
Speaker 2: you've got to have agreed upon communication processes with the
Speaker 2: right capital right people. Right, Like I'm screaming that the
Speaker 2: right people throughout the pilot with some agreed upon rules
Speaker 2: of the road. I mean, it's really all about the
Speaker 2: front end setup with some well thought out and agreed
Speaker 2: upon standards of how are we going to do this,
Speaker 2: who's doing what and when? And how are we going
Speaker 2: to keep the right people engaged so that we can
Speaker 2: make good decisions throughout.
Speaker 1: Right, Because then it's just an assumes part of the process.
Speaker 1: I mean, you almost embedded into the pilot when you
Speaker 1: lay out those rules of the road. That's right, And
Speaker 1: my next question kind of goes to that when you
Speaker 1: mentioned doing this early. How do I make sure I'm
Speaker 1: anchoring on the if this is If this is successful,
Speaker 1: then we are going to do this sort of that
Speaker 1: crux move into moving these pilot projects into more permanent solutions.
Speaker 1: How do I do that early in the process?
Speaker 2: Great? Another great question. I think this isn't patches to
Speaker 2: the why conversation rights, because if this isn't established, you're
Speaker 2: kind of wasting people's time and money, right, including your
Speaker 2: companies and your own right. I mean, you've got to
Speaker 2: be working on the right deals at the right level
Speaker 2: of depth and breadth, right as appropriate for that opportunity.
Speaker 2: So I'm not suggesting that the app is always the
Speaker 2: same thing, but for every pilot there does have to
Speaker 2: be an objective for that pilot and of corresponding set
Speaker 2: of next step and action. Otherwise, like here, give me
Speaker 2: your money and I'll give you what you want for
Speaker 2: the plot. Like it's kind of a I don't want
Speaker 2: to take a waste of time. That's that's a bad
Speaker 2: way to put it. And it might be now that
Speaker 2: I say it out loud, like you could find yourself.
Speaker 2: Let's let's like, let's play this out. Imagine getting a
Speaker 2: pilot with someone thinking to yourself, this is one department
Speaker 2: and a large organization. I can get this pilot in here,
Speaker 2: and then I can take our solution and go company
Speaker 2: Wi trans and have a transformational effort inside of the company.
Speaker 2: Well that's nice, of course, if nobody inside of the
Speaker 2: customers organization knows that it ain't ever going to happen.
Speaker 2: And now you you sign up for a pilot with
Speaker 2: one person and even maybe they've agreed, but you don't
Speaker 2: have any upfront agreement or alignment or access to other
Speaker 2: people that ain't gonna happen. It's just you know, so
Speaker 2: you are wasting your time, or at least you're dreaming
Speaker 2: about something that ain't gonna.
Speaker 1: Happen, right, and it kind of it just becomes bad
Speaker 1: for your professional brand.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: You become an order taker. You're not a problem solve.
Speaker 1: You're not adding value to the customer. You are becoming
Speaker 1: an order taker and to your part, take the deal
Speaker 1: off the street. But in the broader sense, you don't
Speaker 1: want to be doing this consistently.
Speaker 2: I love that you just said that because it reminds
Speaker 2: me too that when you do these well at the
Speaker 2: level that I'm talking about, it's another example of setting
Speaker 2: yourself apart by how you sell, not what you sell.
Speaker 2: And I'm here to tell you ninety percent of organizations
Speaker 2: out there will have significant appreciation for how you handle
Speaker 2: this conversation. And I'm not looking to say no. I'm
Speaker 2: looking to say yes, but I'm looking to say yes
Speaker 2: in a way that is measured appropriately for the opportunity
Speaker 2: and the long term opportunity and puts skin in the
Speaker 2: game on both sides. Yeah, and the appropriate level of skin, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, we're following. Okay, great, and there's a lot
Speaker 1: of great takeaways today, Brian. Then I know people can
Speaker 1: keep the top of mind as we wrap up. Feel
Speaker 1: free to bring in any other final points that you want,
Speaker 1: But I'd also love for you to wrap up by
Speaker 1: giving us a rundown of those key questions you need
Speaker 1: to ask yourself when a potential pilot project surface itself
Speaker 1: in your sales conversation.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I don't want to oversimplify it, but just
Speaker 2: remember these four words who, why, how, and when period?
Speaker 2: And then, like I was having this conversation with an
Speaker 2: organization this week about just getting in a room to
Speaker 2: talk about a live opportunity, this is an example of
Speaker 2: that you're probably going to find yourself in a room
Speaker 2: talking to other people about this pilot. Might be you
Speaker 2: and your manager, it might be you and four other people, right,
Speaker 2: But when you're in that moment, you've got to create
Speaker 2: a culture where other people asking you these questions, will
Speaker 2: who's involved, why should we do this? How are we
Speaker 2: going to make sure it's successful from both sides, et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera. When you're getting asked those questions, it's not
Speaker 2: viewed as an inspection, but instead it's viewed as an
Speaker 2: opportunity to look at this deal more strategically so that
Speaker 2: we can make really great tactical decisions. So it becomes coaching,
Speaker 2: non inspection. And I'll just leave it at that. Finish
Speaker 2: with the you know, stay focused on the who, the why,
Speaker 2: the how and the when, and you've got a really
Speaker 2: you got a much better chance of making the right
Speaker 2: decision for that given opportunity.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Brian, thank you, thank you. And
Speaker 1: these are the type of topics I'll say it again
Speaker 1: that we are taking on in our platform as center.
Speaker 1: You go through a sales training and you learn the
Speaker 1: big rocks, but sometimes when you're executing your sales project process.
Speaker 1: Things come at that up like pilot projects or asking
Speaker 1: for a pilot project. What do I do? And you
Speaker 1: want to figure out your best next steps? You can
Speaker 1: ask these questions in our community. Brian's taking questions Antonella, John, Tim,
Speaker 1: Patti Mac They're all there. Go ahead and check it
Speaker 1: out my dot assender dot co. And thank you for
Speaker 1: listening to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast