ConvictionOps
Matthew Weisberg
Senior Technical Account Manager @ Salesforce | CRM | CDP | AI | Solutions
How good is your company's products and/or services? Score it out of 10, honestly...
Did your first thought involve word "well" or "probably, uhhh"...?
If so, welcome to the life of most sellers I've met, and have been... And in my experience, it's this entire idea that has led me to feeling quite 'in the dark' when it comes to selling certain products at certain times.
Do I know all the features? Yep. The benefits? Yes. Competitors? Objections? Audits? Use-cases... etc.?
Heck yes... and yet... Sometimes Sales can be a mystery.
And... for the rest of us...?
My own experience
...involved reading numerous well known books. After 14 years of never speaking with a customer, I had a lot of catching up to do, so I started studying... I learned scripts, questions, consultation, even body language and tonality... and yet for me it felt that selling was often times 'dishonest'.
I never felt like a liar, but I often felt a discomfort when presenting... So where's the disconnect?
In some of my organizations it was a lack of exposure and focus on what the customers do, and what the customers believe.
In other words... I knew what I wanted to say, what I was supposed to say... even how to say it... But I didn't fully believe it. I was inauthentic... and 'faking it to you make it' doesn't work in sales. It costs companies a ton of marketing dollars on wasted leads, and everyone a ton of time.
Moreover, even if I had seen many true believers, great customers, good reviews, etc., I sometimes didn't understand where those customers were coming from. I never walked a day in those shoes.
Over the last few years I've come to realize that it was this... putting myself into other people's perspectives, studying businesses of all types, and drilling customer stories, in order to truly get it... to really understand who I was selling to and why what I was selling could help them... truly help them. It wasn't until I started doing this that I began making strides in the world of B2B sales. Because what customers do every day matters. Going deep to fully understand those day-to-days really matters... What customers say and believe matters...
It matters more than anyone thinks... what customers believe drives sales, product development, marketing messaging, and service operations. Customer beliefs when spoken through reviews, citations, and stories can inspire sellers to believe in themselves and their company's products.
Not just "believe in yourself", like we are taught in 3rd grade... but truly -- authentically! Your job matters. You are helping people by taking their hard earned cash... No tricks involved, no lies, no persuasion.
In my experience...? It's real.
So, what am I doing?
Focusing on the story.
Managers in Sales, Marketing, Solutions, and Product come together in order to come to an agreement... We could commit to Conviction. We could do the small amount of work to increase customer reviews (in any form), to communicate those reviews to a single person, and to use those reviews to improve levels of seller conviction (keep in mind, sellers include "post-sale too"; AEs, SDRs, ISRs, CSMs, AMs, SEs etc.).
If you start with even a few reviews, case-studies, and/or testimonials, you have enough to start.
I started with a power-point and a loom-video. Then? We went over it... A lot.
Each customer testimonial, review, or case-study can be bucketed for personification, if you have enough... Then, buckets can be drilled with matching territory sellers. Even organized into a reference program, for larger data sets.
If you only have a few altogether? No buckets required!
Because in my experience, sales becomes much more simple when sellers believe, authentically, that the product or service they are representing is the real deal. If they KNOW it will help the customer they are speaking with, then they will naturally speak well about it... They will speak perfectly in-fact... Excitedly... With tonality...
They will give much better presentations, demonstrations, and because of the repetition... they will tell amazing stories of customers they remember from those reviews... How did THEY use the product to win?
This entire idea sounds stupidly simple... but takes care of >70% of sales issues for practically any seller (probably in the age of Zoom meetings).
Sales is mysterious... Tonality? How do I know how to use tonality and when?
Am I an actor?
Am I lying here?
Do I really want to "persuade" a customer to buy?
And wait... who benefits when they do buy? Me, or them...?
What if your sellers believe for real, that they are saving people's business? Because in my case, they are.
The mission is not some joke like "we help make people happy"...
No.
It can be "we help people thrive"... And it can be real.
Many sales gurus argue, "tonality" is XX% of a sale... Well, I disagree.
Tonality is a side-effect of AUTHENTICITY!
But I digress.
Rehearse testimonials, reviews, and case-studies every day.
Then when sellers WIN, which they will... Drill the same stories into your customer success and onboarding people. Delivery and fulfillment also sell.
Your customer will determine if they plan to upgrade or reorder within the first 48-hours of buying from you... even their first time.
"Is this company legit?"
All the testimonials in the world don't outweigh personal experience.
Steve Jobs was known for pointing out that Japanese car makers never advertise the "Quality" of their vehicles.
They advertise pricing, looks, utility, and all that... But never quality...
Why? Because quality can and will only be gauged by personal experience, and there's spoke for itself.
"The BEST Ford F-XY50...", Who are you trying to trick?
It's essential to reinforce the qualities you show during the sales cycle even after the close with appreciation and engagement, and keep on selling. It never, ever ends.
Ever seen an Apple commercials where they talk about how good their iPhone98x1a is going to?
So if quality counts... even after the sale... then after onboarding, CSMs must do the same...
While Account management gets us a little off track... it still belongs in the circuitous cycle of ConvictionOps!
So to recap! Conviction Ops Breakdown
What's the deal?
If you have a good product manager, your product will improve little by little due to this very operation!
As it improves, selling it becomes even easier... Upgrading existing customers becomes a piece of cake...
Where will your organization be if you do this for 1-year?
How about 2 years?
After all, this is naturally a compounding effect...
Questions?
Reach out any time!
-- solutionsChef Out!