The “Amazing-Technology Salesperson” Manifesto

I love interacting with great salespeople.

They’re hard to find, but everything is simpler when they’re here.

I’ve always been fascinated by their ability to convince, to create genuine bonds with people and to help clients benefit from great solutions that would have remained unsuccessful without them.

As a student, I learned the hard way, selling educational books door-to-door in the US, thanks to the Southwestern Company. 

Since then, I’ve never missed an opportunity to learn more and sharpen my skills, be it in complex tenders, or in more confidential sales.

But one thing is for sure: I will never be a natural in this area.

Last week was our bi-annual sales gathering, where I had the opportunity to chat with our salespeople more informally, spend time listening to their great stories and debrief our team on our achievements in the first half of the year. Always with the same idea in mind: 

How can we identify and scale up the most effective practices of our best salespeople?

I started to take notes and enriched them by speaking with some of the great salespeople I know. I’m now passing these onto you as a manifesto: an “amazing-tech salesperson” manifesto.

Only for those who want to prevail.

1.         Don’t be an asshole

Like many other talented people, great salespeople have a reputation to be a pain to manage. They have no filter, and take pride in their achievements. This not a reason to lack consideration for others. Do whatever’s necessary to accomplish your target, but take care of others and be considerate. A good way to keep a cool head is to remember that when great salespeople win, it’s thanks to the team around them. You have to learn to balance humility with pride.

2.         Demand autonomy

It’s difficult to focus on pleasing your clients and if you have lots of people around telling you what to do at the same time. Focus is hard to obtain, and cannot be directed to many things at once. That’s why, from the start and as your confidence builds, you should demand the ability to make your own calls, provided you respect the basic rules.

3.         Reward is important

Modern organizations tend to work by reducing deviations from the average: average salary, average benefit, average age, etc. This can be counter-productive, because revenues also may start to become average after a while. That’s why, as a salesperson, when you’re getting results, proper reward can give you the desire to chase for more.

4.         Don’t spend more time in internal negotiations than with clients

Some organizations are extremely difficult to navigate. If you spend more time getting things moving internally than with your clients, you should ask yourself some questions: “what would happen if I focused more on clients?”, “would the organization deliver?” If the answer is “yes”, change your priorities. If the answer is “no”, you need to have a serious conversation with your boss.

5.        Give more importance to your brand and reputation than to short-term profit

It’s easy to do a one-off deal. It’s more difficult to build relationships and your reputation as a person. That’s why everything you do must be geared toward reinforcing your personal brand.

6.         Play to win

“Do you play to play, or do you play to win?”. Some salespeople just do things because they are expected to. Processes, CRMs, ERPs, can create disinvestment and slowly erode the sense of priorities. It’s easy to get dragged into excuses. Don't forget how good it feels to win.

7.          Know your stuff

There are no better salespeople than those who know about their product, especially when it comes to dealing with clients’ headaches, habits, preferences and context. Spending a lot of time reading, interacting with experts, will give you a lot of credibility and generate trust. This will give you a lot of confidence in convincing your clients when the time comes.

8.         Always think in terms of client benefit/bottom line

A lot of products are sold at a given price, and competition makes it decrease. Selling value means making clients aware of what they could achieve with the product. This creates better margins. The best way to build a long-standing relationship while preserving margins is to commit, explicitly or implicitly, to the result. One of the most efficient ways is to link the use of your product with a better client's bottom line.

9.         Don’t become a tech expert

If you become a tech expert for the products you’re selling, either your product is not unique anymore, or you should stop. This is not your job. Your job is to facilitate the adoption of the product by clients. Not to explain in detail the mechanics of how it works. Don’t hesitate to bring product experts into the discussion at an early stage. They will provide the details and impress on the technical side. If you do this as a salesperson, you will harm the credibility of what you’re selling.

10.      Prepare and structure your success stories

Storytelling is key when trying to convince people. Your first story is your pitch, which needs to be different and unique. Then, the relevant stories are about decision-makers at other clients and how the product you’re selling helped them solve their issue or achieve their goal, which capabilities were involved, and in the end how the product benefited the client. Make sure you have a few of these stories in your repertoire.

11.      Understand what’s important in the sales cycle

The sales cycle goes through different stages, with different concerns depending on the phase you’re in. At the beginning, addressing the needs that clients think they have is extremely important. At the end, once the deal is done, the risk of not delivering what has been promised is the client’s main concern. At this stage, the price paid is of secondary importance.

12.      Find your client’s power people

What’s great about people who have power is that they can make decisions. By interacting directly with them, you avoid wasting time with people that don’t have the authority to purchase. Recognizing these “power people” is not difficult. They ask questions like: “what is this investment going to do for me?”, “how soon can I get it?”. People with less decision-making power will ask: “how much does it cost?”, “how difficult is it to install?”.

13.      Widen your sphere of influence

To get information about a new client, you have to broaden your sphere of influence, really understand what dynamics are at play, and know what’s happening inside the organization better than your client does. This will give you an edge in your proposal, as it will feel better tailored to the client’s specific needs.

14.      Plan your account strategy over years, not months

Sales are often driven by a single deal or opportunity. This might mean leaving a lot of value on the table. That’s why having a damn good idea of what you want to accomplish with a given client will guide you in your important decisions. A great salesperson is a great strategist.

15.      Build confidence first

Often, we want to jump to the business as fast as possible. But good business is about relationships. Building confidence first in order to establish a relationship is mandatory. Sometimes the context doesn’t help, but in that case, the relationship you manage to build may be a great differentiator. The goal is to get to a natural conversation as fast as possible.

16.      Each client interaction needs to have a purpose

Time is money, and prospects will value people who don’t waste their time. In the dynamics of a deal, it is important to plan the steps, making sure you move on and accomplish those necessary to get a “yes”.

17.      Don’t neglect soft motivations

In the sales process, and especially in B2B sales, emotions matter even more than logic and reason. Be it fear, joy or the feeling of belonging, emotions influence our decisions much more than we think. This mustn’t be neglected. One area where this is especially true is when dealing with governments, because so many personal, political and geopolitical dimensions are involved that fulfilling the explicit need is only part of the issue.

18.      Learn to convince

Much of a salesperson’s job is to shift clients’ opinions. This can be done in several ways, and is not an exact science. Two things are certain: firstly, nothing defies logic, and so explaining where your reasoning comes from helps people to understand your point of view. Secondly, don’t be afraid to repeat yourself, every day if necessary. It is very rare for an idea to be understood the first time you try to share it.

19.      If you are focused on your target, you will not succeed

Let it go. Don’t let pressure get in the way. Be ready to lose. It’s only when you have nothing to lose that you can perform at your best. Establish rapport, build confidence, answer objections in advance, build up the price, close. But don’t be obsessed by your targets. You will achieve them as long as you do what you have to do… and let it go.

20.      Make the implicit explicit: unveil the real need

Most of your job at the beginning is to assess the situation: 

What solution is in place? What are the drawbacks of the current situation? What is the business need? What are the strategic priorities? What are the politics in play at the client? What are the competitors in the process? Who’s making the decisions? Who’s writing the checks? What do shareholders think about this? Which stakeholders need to be convinced? What technical constraints should be taken into account? 

Answering this type of questions will help you make explicit what is implicitly at stake in this deal. And that will give you a big edge!

21.      Answer objections in advance

A sales expert once told me that to close a deal, you have to answer these nine questions to get a “yes”:

• How is this different?
• What’s in it for me?
• How do I know this is for real?
• What’s been holding me back?
• Who is to blame for that?
• Why should I trust you?
• How does it work?
• How can I get started?
• And, importantly, why now?
• Lastly, what do I have to lose by not doing it?

You should answer these questions proactively, otherwise the process will take longer!

22.      Know when to close and go for it

Making decisions and negotiating on areas of disagreement is hard. That’s why, when the decision-making process is clear, when all objections have been dealt with, a great salesperson takes the hand of the prospect and closes the deal. Most often, this doesn’t come naturally, but forcing it will help moving things forward.

23.      Be accountable for delivery

Good salespeople make the deal and then outsource the rest. Great salespeople take ownership of the entire process, until the end of delivery… and the next upsell. This is also a great way to demonstrate benefit and ensure that communication during delivery is up to standard. Of course, there are always hiccups, and your role will then be to act as your client’s advocate. You’ll have a hard time, but in the end, you’ll get credited for it.

24.      Make sure your clients recommend you 

Eventually, once you’ve spent enough time getting new clients and making sure delivery exceeds their expectations, don’t hesitate to ask them to recommend you to their peers, internally or externally. If they are pleased with your work, you can be sure they will be your best salespeople, and the next deal will come by itself.

25.      Don’t forget how good you are… and work harder 

Being a great salesperson is tough. It’s a very thankless task, most of the time. That’s why you shouldn’t forget how good you are. Above all, don’t wait for others, especially internally, to give you appraisals. When you’ve achieved great results, don’t be complacent, get back to it… and work a little harder than before!

Feel free to add-on to this manifesto. Don’t hesitate to reach out: [email protected].

Thanks for your time,

Cheers & Best,

Jacques

References:

Top picture: Moonwalk, the story of the Apollo 11 moon landing, A. Buckley, D. Jenkins, Circa press, 2016

Point 21: The 16-Word Sales Letter: A proven method of writing multi-million-dollar copy faster than you ever thought possible, E. Albuquerque, Independently published, 2019