Cultivating Curiosity
Randy Seidl
Board Member | CEO | CRO | Executive Recruiter | Sales Community Leader | Advisor | Consulting
In sales, curiosity can be your greatest ally.
By taking a curious approach, you can better understand your customers' problems to craft tailored solutions to help support their goals.
Not only does this earn you a seat at their table but also positions you as a trusted advisor.
And as you connect the dots between their challenges and your offerings, it can lead to accelerated success and lasting relationships.
Use the link below for a Sales Community FREE year membership:
?? Get access to exclusive events, content, and tips and tricks from the top CRO's
Tech Sales Insights LIVE
Guest: David Grant , President at Nasuni
Date: Thursday, July 25th
Time: 10:30AM EST
This episode is sponsored by Sandler . Sandler is a world leader in innovative sales, leadership, and management training. For more than 50 years, Sandler has taught its distinctive, non-traditional selling system and highly effective sales training methodology, which has helped salespeople and sales managers take charge of the process.
In Case You Missed It:
Check out our previous episodes at tsi.salescommunity.com
Sponsor Spotlight
The Alexander Group
Sales Compensation Symposium
Join hundreds of sales compensation professionals for a high-energy event where we will combine the spirit of the Olympics with sales compensation excellence!
This year’s event will feature a triathlon with three distinct legs, each designed to help you create winning sales compensation program for your team!
Go for gold using the latest research, insights and strategies for sales compensation success!
Alexander Group Sales Compensation Symposium
August 13, 2024 | 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Virtual & Complimentary!
Sandler
Why Salespeople Fail
Get to the next level of your sales career with insights from Sandler's whitepaper, "Why Salespeople Fail... And What You Can Do About It."?
This guide offers an empowering, no-nonsense approach to selling that puts you firmly in control.?
Learn from the experts who revolutionized modern selling. Download now !
Humantic AI
Selling Is Evolving. Are You?
Humantic AI is a Buyer Intelligence platform for revenue teams.
Top revenue teams use Humantic's Personality AI to identify early adopters, help their BDRs personalize outreach and enable their AEs with vital customer insights for every deal.
Try a free-trial for your personality?profile & those you are?selling to today here!
Randy's Tips to Sell More ?? Excerpts from Your Go-To Sales Advisor
Consultative Approach
What the Idea Is
Curiosity is a big asset. Take a curious approach to understand how things work, what problems your customers really have, how to solve those problems, and what it is like to be the customer.
My company is a reseller, and this approach allows us to understand the problems and come up with solutions to solve them. We have found a way to accelerate our success, and the value prop is to be more successful or successful at a faster pace.
Over time, you will be able to understand more about how your customers operate, based on their title/role/experiences. Earn a seat at the table with curiosity and knowledge (finding out how their business works, what their day is like, etc.). This allows you to create a portfolio of solutions that you can offer to them to help formulate their success. A good consultative salesperson is always a catalyst for success.
Customers always want improved service; that doesn’t mean it isn’t good already, but it can always be better. I firmly believe if you want a customer’s share of spend (market share), you need their mindshare first. You must be compelling and demonstrate how your product/service is the best answer for the client out of all the right answers available.
Why It Is Valuable
Taking the approach of what interests my customer fascinates me. We must apply what they teach us to what is important to them. When we can connect the dots and begin to recommend ways to accelerate their success, we will get the mindshare, and market share will follow. Then we need to think about how we can grow the customer so their experience continues to excel. That gives the reward back to the customer.
How It Works
Good parents tend to make good kids. You have to hire people with a likeable demeanor. Look for those who are ingrained with these fundamental characteristics:
They must also have had direct experience in training and have case studies, and they need to understand that there is a sales process; deals do not close themselves.
To make this work, you must have a plan that goes beyond the first sales call; customer experience is improved if your sales calls are strung together with purpose. The next call must be orchestrated with purpose before the current call ends. They must link together. You can teach this by using stories of where, when, and how it has worked. Be sure to also give examples of times when things didn’t work out as planned.
I find it helpful to have visuals around the office that make a point. I have a picture of Custer fighting Indians, and behind him is a salesman with a machine gun, tugging on Custer’s coat to try to get his attention. Custer is saying, “Can’t you see I’m busy?” I often teach with stories because they are so effective.
Another visual is a picture of Ronald Reagan with Gorbachev, with the caption “Trust but Verify.” We should take what we are being told as truth, but then find a way to confirm it is. We have to ask, what do we actually know, and what do we remember to be true? Sometimes we assume old information is true over the passage of time, but when we integrate more facts, we find it is actually not the same as it was; we have to allow for the input of new data.
The leading indicators that this concept works are increased revenue and higher customer retention. You will also have more sales calls, more sales activity, increased pipeline, and good vendor engagement. You’ll be able to form more revenue streams (not one and done), such as infrastructure, services, etc., because you are building relationships over time.
CRM is a fantastic tool for measuring interactions and activity. When sellers think the system is for them, and not for their boss, it becomes part of their process and determines how they manage their day. It creates a different type of interaction.
Provide GTM Teams w/ Account & Executive Insight to Drive Growth
3 个月Randy Seidl, great post and curiosity is KEY. We provide insight to leading companies, so GTM teams know where executives are focused and what they really care about.