Speaker 1: You need to understand what that differentiation does for your customer,
Speaker 1: Why is it good for them? And so what if
Speaker 1: they don't have it, what problems come up? And that
Speaker 1: makes it really easy for you to come up with
Speaker 1: your discovery questions.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the audible Ready Podcast. The show that
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Speaker 3: Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready Sales Podcast.
Speaker 4: I'm racial klet Miller, and I want to start by
Speaker 4: letting everyone know that our new Assender platform has launched
Speaker 4: content Curriculum community. You can sign up at a center
Speaker 4: dot co. We are publishing content just for sales reps
Speaker 4: there every day Monday through Friday. I have quite a
Speaker 4: pipeline of content, so I hope you come check it out,
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Speaker 3: You can even spot our own John Kaplan there too.
Speaker 3: Hi John Rachel.
Speaker 5: It's a great day to be in a sender.
Speaker 4: It is It is okay, So John, today let's focus
Speaker 4: on a critical component of every deal you sell. We
Speaker 4: talk about key buckets you need to fill up as
Speaker 4: a rep. But when we talk about critical buckets, the
Speaker 4: solution requirements or required capabitabilities are one that are really important.
Speaker 4: These are things that the customer needs to achieve the
Speaker 4: business outcomes they're looking for. They must have requirements that
Speaker 4: exist with or without your solution, and we're going to
Speaker 4: dive in on those today.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean you often hear me talk about attaching to
Speaker 1: the biggest business issue facing the customer, and that is
Speaker 1: a critical skill. And then you hear me talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, influencing decision criteria or solution requirements. So connecting
Speaker 1: those two together are really really critical. So you can
Speaker 1: think of solution requirements in terms of like current state
Speaker 1: and future state. So there what is required to get
Speaker 1: the customer for from where they are now from where
Speaker 1: they want to go, and your job as a seller
Speaker 1: is to create that bridge for them and align it
Speaker 1: to your own value and the differentiation you bring to
Speaker 1: the table. So it's a really really critical critical skill.
Speaker 1: We're going to dig into it here a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: We often say, John that you have to be able
Speaker 4: to influence these requirements, and that's what you're talking about
Speaker 4: with that alignment to the value and differentiation you bring
Speaker 4: to your table. It's about positioning what you bring in
Speaker 4: a way that influences those requirements exactly.
Speaker 1: There's an old saying out there that says, wherever you are,
Speaker 1: there you go. So whatever comes to you by way
Speaker 1: of solution requirements, you have to be audible, ready, and
Speaker 1: prepared to influence those. You know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, I have to make sure that those solution
Speaker 1: requirements are more favorable for me and my company, and
Speaker 1: if they aren't, I have to be ready through discovery
Speaker 1: and trap setting to influence them in a way that's
Speaker 1: aligned to my solution. So I'm asking them why a
Speaker 1: specific requirement is important, how does it drive to the outcomes.
Speaker 1: I'm also asking them, meaning them the customer, about gaps
Speaker 1: in their requirements. So if there's something that's not in
Speaker 1: there that should be in there, I have to get
Speaker 1: that in there. I have to find a way to
Speaker 1: get it in there, so I just you know, relate
Speaker 1: it to their outcomes, and I do that in a
Speaker 1: way that makes it more favorable for them.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the other critical component here and something that really probably,
Speaker 6: I would say differentiates great sellers from elite sellers is
Speaker 6: to really under the understanding that those lists of requirements
Speaker 6: can always be evolving.
Speaker 4: Once you validate them at one point, they can change.
Speaker 4: Customers change their mind, a competitor may drop in and
Speaker 4: influence them, business priorities might shift, So we need to
Speaker 4: be constantly validating them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, they're really the gold He or she
Speaker 1: who owns the decision requirements, the require capabilities, the solution capabilities,
Speaker 1: all three of those that are interchangeable. He or she
Speaker 1: who owns those really owns the opportunity. And I think
Speaker 1: sometimes people make this a little bit more complicated. So
Speaker 1: I always think about it, like, you know, what are
Speaker 1: my critical differentiators in every sales meeting and every conversation
Speaker 1: that I'm going to have? And the first thing I
Speaker 1: say to myself is what are my differentiators that I
Speaker 1: want to highlight in this conversation? How am I going
Speaker 1: to get those different get that differentiation into the conversation?
Speaker 1: And then I think about a series of discovery questions
Speaker 1: which are intended to trap my competition around that differentiator.
Speaker 1: So my goal is through a series of questions, I
Speaker 1: get the customer to see that they need that differentiation
Speaker 1: and that it's critical to get that business outcome that
Speaker 1: they're trying to achieve. So therefore it just becomes a
Speaker 1: natural part of the solution requirements or the required capability.
Speaker 1: So again, first I think about my differentiation, and then
Speaker 1: I take a look at the decision criteria, the solution requirements,
Speaker 1: and I got to make a decision that says how
Speaker 1: am I going to get these differentiators into those decision
Speaker 1: criteria and make it the customer's idea. It's all about discovery.
Speaker 1: It's all about understanding your differentiation and then asking great
Speaker 1: discovery questions which make the customer highlight some of the
Speaker 1: challenges and the problems of not having that differentiation. So
Speaker 1: it becomes an automatic conclusion by the customer that they say,
Speaker 1: but of course I need that differentiation. Your crux move
Speaker 1: is then saying okay, so can we call that a
Speaker 1: required capability? And the customer says yes, So don't overcomplicate it.
Speaker 4: Right, We always say, when you think about your differentiation,
Speaker 4: it only matters if it's important to the buyer. Those
Speaker 4: traits of your solution that make you different and better
Speaker 4: than the competition are only important if the buyer cares
Speaker 4: about them. So this crux move that you're talking about, John,
Speaker 4: and the aligning it to the required capabilities is just
Speaker 4: really helping the customer understand that if they want to
Speaker 4: achieve these outcomes they need.
Speaker 3: This is a list of what's required to get there.
Speaker 4: If you want to achieve hey, you need to do
Speaker 4: B and B has my differentiation in it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one last thing on this, Rachel, I think it's
Speaker 1: really really You just brought up a great point. I said,
Speaker 1: the differentiator has to have value to the customer. And
Speaker 1: I remember scenario one time where I was competing and
Speaker 1: I totally smoked my competition. I blew them away in
Speaker 1: the validation event and we were selling software to a
Speaker 1: customer and in the end, the economic buyer came back
Speaker 1: and said, mister Kaplan, we have a problem and I said, well,
Speaker 1: what's the problem and he said that your screen is blue?
Speaker 1: And I almost started chuckling. Rachel, I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: wait a second, he's not smiling, so let me just
Speaker 1: think about this for a second. Yes, indeed, my screen
Speaker 1: is blue. And the interface that the competitor was using,
Speaker 1: which the which the users were using for you know
Speaker 1: twenty years was green, and then I thought about it.
Speaker 1: Thank god, I caught myself and I thought, so what,
Speaker 1: so what if it's a blue screen, ear green screen?
Speaker 1: What does that have to do with differentiation? Like bi
Speaker 1: directional associativity, which means a change made anywhere was reflected everywhere.
Speaker 1: What is that going to do? By you know, what
Speaker 1: I'm proposing is drastically reducing the time to market by
Speaker 1: a minimum of fifty percent. And so I caught myself
Speaker 1: and I had to ask myself the question what does
Speaker 1: that have to do? What value does that add for
Speaker 1: the customer? And I'll never forget that Rachel, differentiation has
Speaker 1: to bring value to the customer. It doesn't. It's not different.
Speaker 1: It's not a differentiator just because it's different. And it
Speaker 1: was a really really great learning experience for me. So
Speaker 1: when you're out there and we're telling you, you wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning and you got to understand your differentiation.
Speaker 1: You need to understand what that differentiation does for your customer.
Speaker 1: Why is it good for them? And so what if
Speaker 1: they don't have it, what problems come up? And that
Speaker 1: makes it really easy for you to come up with
Speaker 1: your discovery questions. Just ask questions about scenarios of those
Speaker 1: problems or those challenges, and that's how you do it.
Speaker 4: Thanks for reminding me, Yeah yeah, and getting them into
Speaker 4: the required capabilities or solution requirements are is that coruct
Speaker 4: move that you're talking about, and those requirements are.
Speaker 7: Just one of those critical buckets that you need to
Speaker 7: fill up before you really talk about yourself or demonstrate
Speaker 7: how you do it, what your solution is going to
Speaker 7: bring to them.
Speaker 5: Oh, really good, really good. I like how you set
Speaker 5: that up.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about your mentality has always got to
Speaker 1: be outside in. You first have to understand the wants,
Speaker 1: needs and challenges of your customer before you make it
Speaker 1: about yourself. It's as old as dirt. It's Egypt old.
Speaker 1: I like to think about these as buckets. Like think
Speaker 1: about when you have a conversation with a customer, you're
Speaker 1: getting on the with them, you're having a meeting with them.
Speaker 1: You write down on a piece of paper you have
Speaker 1: three buckets that you have to fill up before you
Speaker 1: earn the right to pivot and talk about yourself or
Speaker 1: talk about your solution. Those are things like positive business
Speaker 1: outcomes or the outcomes the business implications that they're trying
Speaker 1: to achieve. We talked about attaching to the biggest business issue.
Speaker 5: You've got to understand that.
Speaker 1: And if I don't have those things, bad things will
Speaker 1: happen because there'll be no urgency. If I'm not attached
Speaker 1: to a business outcome, there'll be more urgency. I'm more
Speaker 1: likely to be thrown in with a group of other competitors.
Speaker 1: It's harder to differentiate. The next thing, the next bucket
Speaker 1: that I have to have is I have to understand
Speaker 1: the solution requirements. And we just talked about not only
Speaker 1: have to understand the solution requirements, but they have to
Speaker 1: be favorable for the customer and they have to be
Speaker 1: favorable for us. And that's where we get our differentiation involved.
Speaker 1: And then the third thing is I have to understand
Speaker 1: how they're going to measure success. So the three buckets
Speaker 1: are positive business outcomes, the solution requirements, and then the
Speaker 1: metrics or how the customers going to measure success. Once
Speaker 1: I fill up those buckets, I've earned the right to
Speaker 1: make it all about myself, and then I can talk
Speaker 1: about how I do those things, maybe how I do
Speaker 1: them differently or better than the competition. And of course
Speaker 1: you know where I might have done it before, but
Speaker 1: that's all about me. I have to earn the right.
Speaker 1: A lot of sellers get it turned around, Rachel. You
Speaker 1: know they're picking up the phone, they're talking about, Hey,
Speaker 1: have you heard of us? Here's what we do. Stop me.
Speaker 1: When you hear something you like, it's as old as dirt,
Speaker 1: it's Egypt old. First make it about them before you
Speaker 1: earn the right to make it about you.
Speaker 4: That's a great wrap up, John, But I'm wondering if
Speaker 4: you have another bottom line.
Speaker 1: I can talk a dog off about the meat back
Speaker 1: and Rachel, And since you asked me to prepare for
Speaker 1: a bottom line, and I'm like, well that was good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not bad. Huh, not bad way to be audible. Ready,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do one. Let's do one. So when
Speaker 1: I think about a bottom line, you know, require capabilities
Speaker 1: of the gold for salespeople. You got to wake up
Speaker 1: every morning and you got to say I need to
Speaker 1: own those require capabilities and they got to be favorable
Speaker 1: for me. So it's it's it's not just about you know,
Speaker 1: gathering requirements. It's not being a note taker.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: There's a saying that says, you know, I don't need
Speaker 1: you to be. I don't need you to be a
Speaker 1: weather person. I need you to be a journalist. And
Speaker 1: I think you might have taught me that one because
Speaker 1: you're a former journalist and I really really like that.
Speaker 1: So you got to be prepared to not only gather
Speaker 1: those require capabilities, but you have to be influencing them
Speaker 1: with your decision criteria. So you got to think about
Speaker 1: getting your differentiation, and you wake up in the morning,
Speaker 1: swing your legs over the side of the bed and say,
Speaker 1: what is my difference that I'm going to influence into
Speaker 1: conversations today? Plan for it with great discovery questions. The
Speaker 1: best way to do that is think about, all right,
Speaker 1: let me think about that differentiator. What does it mean
Speaker 1: to the customer? So what if they don't have it? Okay,
Speaker 1: it causes this problem, it causes that problem, it causes
Speaker 1: this problem. Just ask a series of discovery questions about
Speaker 1: those problems you just thought about, and then everything will
Speaker 1: fall into place. The last thing you do is you
Speaker 1: get the customer to say, Okay, so it sounds like
Speaker 1: that's pretty important for you to have. Do you mind
Speaker 1: if we just call that a required capability? And that's
Speaker 1: what the most elite sellers do You'll win every time?
Speaker 8: All right?
Speaker 3: Thank you, John, you got it.
Speaker 4: Thank you to all of you for continuing to listen
Speaker 4: to the Audible Ready Sales podcast. If you like this content,
Speaker 4: this is the same type of content that we are
Speaker 4: publishing in the Ascender platform, so be sure to check
Speaker 4: it out at sender dot com.
Speaker 8: At Force Management, we're focused on transforming sales organizations into
Speaker 8: elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company
Speaker 8: alignment and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the
Speaker 8: ability to execute the growth strategy at the point of sale.
Speaker 8: Our strength is our experience. The proof is in our results.
Speaker 8: Let's get started. Visit us at forcemanagement dot com.
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