Customers don't care about your product!
Customers ONLY care about achieving their business goals
I love onboarding new sales people -- especially BDCs, SDRs, BDRs -- who have never been in professional sales before.
They are eager, curious and motivated.
They don't have bad (selling) habits that get in their way.
Importantly, I have the opportunity to introduce them to the concept of professional selling and to value selling -- the focus on helping the customer to achieve their business goals. And imprinting this approach on their impressionable minds so early helps to ensure greater success and job satisfaction throughout their sales career.
You may ask: "Hey, Lee, doesn't an SDR need to know their product?"
Sure...but again, the customer only cares about achieving their results, and a focus on your product will derail the conversation. (Closed/Lost or Closed/ND)
You may also ask: "Hey, Lee does an SDR have the time to prepare for individual phone calls? Shouldn't they just follow the script we give them? That's a lot more efficient, right?"
Can you afford an SDR to not be prepared for a conversation with a prospect?
While reading from a script might be more efficient...it's highly ineffective. Customers hang up on sales people reading from a script. Conversely, they are willing to give some time to a rep who is authentic, prepared and shows curiosity. The rep then has the opportunity to earn more time.
Over the years I've enabled several thousand SDRs and inside sales people, working through the basics of effective and efficient account research, contact profiling, message creation and hypothesis development.
For an SDR, this process might take five minutes per call, and drive an increase in call success rates by 10 or 20X. With a connection/completion rate of maybe two or three calls per session, the increase in success rates leads to dramatically higher pipeline creation on a daily and weekly basis.
Can you afford not to do this? What impact would this have on your pipeline?
Similarly, for an inside sales rep, this process might take ten minutes per call, along with another ten minutes of practice and observation during an occasional Power Hour...and will lead to similarly higher success rates and pipeline creation.
While AI tools may assist in a rep's preparation (and even practice), it is up to the rep to be authentic, curious and ready for whatever a prospect might say. This requires agility rather than the ability to read from a script.
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In one Power Hour that I managed, a prospect said the following to a rep (who had practiced their opening over and over):
You must have found that information on my LinkedIn profile, right? Yes, I was involved in that initiative.
Anyway, I've moved on to another project...
What a wonderful opening for two new lines of inquiry...
Instead, sadly, the rep missed the opportunity for the pivot. He thanked the prospect for their time and disconnected. Oops!
That rep experienced "mission-induced blindness." He was so focused on his goal that he missed the opportunity to align with the prospect's goals.
That moment of truth is a singular opportunity. Blow it and it's gone.
Prepare for that moment of truth and you have a dramatically higher likelihood of success that leads to value for the customer.
Oh, and by the way, most of your peers and competitors are indeed winging it.
The pivot is not something that you can identify and think through in the moment. You must prepare for it, practice it, and when required, instinctively lead the customer in that new direction.
So...when you prepare (or ensure that your team is prepared, you stand out and the prospect or customer will reward you with additional time and access.
Need help preparing your team? Want to ensure success this year? Message me with some available times for an initial conversation.
Thanks!
Lee