Buyers Hate Sales Handoffs: Here’s How to Fix Yours

In the last few weeks, we've talked a lot about the importance of?intent signals to meet buyers where they are in their journey to close more deals.

The buyer handoff is another step?of the sales process where knowing intent can really make an impact on a buyer’s experience when thoughtfully executed.

If a buyer comes in educated or has already vetted competitors, they don't need to be qualified - they should be going straight to a demo.

Today, handoffs are such a?bumpy experience for buyers and misaligning goals on the initial call is one of two reasons why.

The second reason? Each person involved in pushing the?deal forward thinks?their job is done once they achieve their goal.

An SDR books a meeting then pushes the buyer to sales. Sales closes the deal and sends the buyer off to customer success or account management as quickly as possible - then focuses on the next sale.

The buyer has gotten to know their SDR, they've had?conversations, their SDR really pumped them up and got them excited, just to be given to someone new over and over again.

In this week’s session, I'm breaking down how to?fix your handoff process ?for various types of buyers with different levels of intent and am including sample scripts that your team can start using today.

I promise you, this will make the handoff process smoother, improve the buyer experience, and increase their confidence in your team.

-Jake

“The handoff is one of the parts of the process, that when done correctly, can have a dramatic impact on the buyer experience.”

The reason why the sales handoff process is difficult for buyers today is because nobody cares.?

If you’re an SDR, you set appointments, and you’re done. If you’re in Sales, you close the deal, and that’s it, off to CS. Then the buyer is left thinking, “What just happened?”

This process is shocking to me. And it’s shocking how often it occurs.

The other significant change Sales needs to make is moving people through the process and adjusting your handoff to match a buyer’s intent level. If people are coming in more informed during their first interaction with Sales (whether that’s Sales Development or Sales), they don’t want to be “handed off” the same as someone just starting to look for a solution.

If you’re a manager looking to improve your sales handoff process, this is applicable to individual SDRs and AEs as well, I’m going to walk you through what each type of handoff should look like and some scripts you can steal.

• General/cold SDR to AE handoff?
• A handoff script for buyers with high intent
• Bringing in CS for a better AE handoff

Recap: Buyers Hate Sales Handoffs: Here Why

The important bits:

• 3:12 – How do you deal with people with a very high level of intent, and how do you get them through the process?
• 3:38 – It is brutal when you are forced to sit through all the levels of qualification when all you want is a demo.?
• 4:42 – A straightforward script on how to take the buyer handoff (from SDR to AE) from a level two experience to a level eight.?
• 7:05 – It’s a two-way qualification. The buyer is also qualifying the SDR. The second issue with the SDR to AE handoff is that most SDRs are trained on questions that are qualification only and aren’t trained on how to uncover buyer intent.
• 9:02 – A script for buyers with high intent to move them through faster.
• 10:20 – Imagine how much an AE will love you (as an SDR) if you set the first meeting and let the buyer know what the second meeting will likely be and already get the ball rolling. You basically set two meetings in one.
• 12:40 – Salespeople can slow deals down and not even know it because they aren’t thinking about the handoff.
• 14:06 – If you want a great handoff from Sales to CS, talk about implementation early.?
• 15:45 – The salesperson’s job is to create power users.?
• 19:00 – Are you fast-tracking those people who are ready to buy??

Before we dive into the different points of handoff and the scripts, the first step for any SDR/AE is understanding that there are different types of buyers with?varying levels of intent .?

In many cases, buyers are coming in having done their research and want to be sent straight to the right person to talk to – while sales development is slowing them down and trying to gather the information they need before handing them off.

More customers are coming in saying, “Okay, I’ve already done all this research. Can I go straight to the person I need to talk to?”?

Meanwhile, the SDR says, “I need to know a little bit more about you before I hand you off. I need to understand your needs.”?

Sales Development needs to gather a certain amount of information, but they also need to pay attention to a buyer telling them, “I’ve done my research. I’ve done XYZ. So can we do the learn-about-you-phase while also getting my team and me a demo?”

Having been a buyer, I can tell you it is brutal when you are forced to sit through all these levels of qualification when all you want is a demo.?

So how do you?deal with people that have very high intent ?differently? And how do you get them quickly through the process? Every company needs to ensure that they have these sorts of questions baked into their sales discovery process. Whether the SDRs do it or the Sales team does it:

• How much research have you done on the product?
• Have you looked at other providers or types of solutions?
• Have you had a chance to review our product online??
• Do you have an idea of pricing??

In some industries, maybe 5-10% of buyers have already done their research. In other industries, it will be higher – maybe 20%. For the people in this 5-20%, you want to get them moving as quickly as possible through the sales process.?

If someone your SDR has talked to says, “Yeah, I’ve already been on a couple of other demos with your competitors,” that should immediately tell you this person is qualified. They’ve already done a demo, and they understand your competitors’ pricing. This person is ready to go.?

But let’s start with a general or cold handoff from SDR to AE.

General/Cold SDR to AE Sales Handoff

Here’s the script any SDR can use to improve the quality of the handoff and the buyer’s next meeting.

“Hey, Lisa. I’m really looking forward to the next conversation. Based on what you’ve told me, I’m going to pair you up with one of our sales executives with a ton of experience in financial services (insert vertical here). I feel like they’re going to be a really great person for you to have your next conversation with.”?

I will sit down with them, walk them through what I heard today, and ensure they’re ready to jump into the two XYZ things you mentioned.

I’m really excited for you to have this next conversation, and I’ll catch up with you in two days. “

I’ll break it down in another way:

• Tell them you’re really excited for this next conversation.?
• You’re going to pair them up with someone on the team to have a really smart conversation about XYZ.?
• You’re personally going to spend a little time walking the next person through the areas you hit on to make sure that they’re ready and prepared, so the buyer has a great experience.?
• You’ll get that invite over now.??

The handoff process sets the tone for the buyer.?

How much more excited will the buyer be for the next call if they go in with the mindset that?I’m going to talk to someone right away. They’re not going to waste my time. They’ll already be prepped. I won’t have to tell them about the things I already discussed.

If you literally rinse and repeat this script, it will change the meeting experience. It’s going to change the attitude buyers come in with, and your meeting show rate will go up.

But guess what? You need to actually go and do the prep work. You need to go prep your salesperson.

A Sales Handoff Script for Buyers with High Intent

Now here’s the script on how you handle people with high intent.?

“So here’s what I heard, Jane. It sounds like you’ve evaluated two competitors.

Typically when I talk to buyers at this stage, it means they’re ready for a demo. They’re ready to get other senior leaders involved to fast-track this process and ensure they find the right solutions for themselves. Does that sound like you?

So here’s what I’m going to do. I will set you up with a quick intro call with Tyler on my team. Tyler’s an expert on this product. I’m going to catch him up on what we talked about. You’re going to love that conversation.

Tyler will set up a meeting with you, and you mentioned that Linda will be the person who signs off, so Tyler will probably want to set a meeting with Linda in the next four or five days. If you wanna soft circle some times for Linda and send those over, that would be great.”?

Boom. Two meetings booked in one.?

Imagine how much an account executive will love you if you set the first meeting and then say, “Just so you know, here’s what’s going to happen next,” and you get the ball rolling on the second meeting.?

That’s why it’s important to understand level of intent. Otherwise, you could be missing an opportunity to push a deal faster as opposed to letting the account executive do all the work.

If you tell buyers that you usually loop in X other people at Y stage and ask them if it works for them, more people will show up. You’ll get that second or that third meeting with the final decision-maker exponentially faster.

For all of you trying to increase your number of qualified late-stage meetings, these small things could be shooting you in the foot.?

Bringing in CS for a Better AE Sales Handoff

Now let’s talk about what needs to happen with salespeople to close the deal. This is an area where salespeople can actually slow down the process and slow down deals, and they don’t even know they’re doing it.?

What we have seen historically is the sales teams that close the most deals also do the best job of explaining the next steps. They don’t just pass clients off to their world-class customer success team.?

Salespeople should actively include in their conversations, “Let’s talk about your implementation plan. Typically our team will handle the project management and take care of the implementation. I will probably loop in Stacy since she will likely be your account manager.”?

You should bring customer service/account management into that last call. Let them hear the last conversation to better prep them for their first. It makes the buyer feel more comfortable. It’s pretty shocking how few sales reps bring the account manager into the last call.?

Why should you talk about implementation early??

Because the number one thing many salespeople lose deals to is?“no decision.” ?

If buyers get into a room with their team and someone asks, “Who’s going to implement this? Do we have time for this?” and your main advocate says, “You know, I don’t know, but I don’t have time to implement it,” your deal was just lost.

If you’re in sales and want to create a great handoff to customer service, talk about implementation upfront and let the buyers know that your customer service team will help.

And again, really think about the concept of intent-based sales and build it into your current playbooks. You should be fast-tracking high-intent people who are ready to buy and getting them the information they need to make an educated decision faster. Don’t make them jump through a bunch of hoops that may or may not be applicable.?

If you do these things, you will be running a modern sales org in no time.

Related Content:?Decrease Sales Cycles by 25% with Intent-Based Sales Processes