Fuentes Fridays #009

Here is your end-of-the-week insight into what I see going on in the business world, what I’m thinking about, and what I’m learning about. Forward anything that you feel inspired to share.

What I’m Hearing From Sales Leaders/Professionals

This past week I was able to join many negotiation-planning calls with my clients. The one thing I noticed is that many of them were planning on negotiating without even knowing why the client wanted to buy, what value the solution would deliver, and what they really needed to solve for. My question was, “Why are we even negotiating?”

In one such call, I asked the AE, “What was the biggest roadblock?” and they proudly said, “Price.” Skeptical, I asked why the client wanted to buy (benefits) and what value the solution would deliver (value). The answer to the first question was long winded, which made me think that the AE really did not know, and the answer to the second question was almost non-existent.

I told the AE and the CEO that we did not have enough to go on, but that we needed to run a few different scenarios ahead of the call. I joined the call with the prospect and I asked them, “Why do you like our solution?” I then asked, “What will it do for your business?” The prospect had FANTASTIC answers for both questions. Knowing that they wanted the solution because it solved a real problem and they believed it would deliver real value, I said the following: “That is great to hear. I want to get this into your hands. You said budget was the reason you could not move forward. What do I need to solve for?”

The prospect was very quick with their response. “I don’t have much left to spend this year, so I would like to pay 20% now and then 80% on January 1st. I don’t want a discount because I believe your price is fair and, honestly, a discount doesn’t matter because I don’t have the money.”

The prospect had emailed earlier, “We don’t have budget,” but the objection was about payment terms, not price. My client wanted to negotiate with them before even knowing whether the prospect really wanted the solution and what was truly holding them back.

The next time you or one of your AEs is thinking about negotiating price, make sure to ask in a curious, not confrontational way, “Why are we negotiating?”

What Made Me Laugh

I love laughing, and I love ginger ale. Thus, I love this clip immensely. I have been laughing for two straight weeks.

https://www.tiktok.com/@keltotheg/video/7359343167440686378?_r=1&_t=8lnQFRgBbzT

This Week’s 40/20

For every 40 hours of work, I believe you should spend 20 (additional) hours mastering your craft. This is how I spent some of my 20 hours this week.

I take every opportunity to find sales lessons. Recently, I reached out to multiple foam-insulation providers to get proposals. One in particular stood out to me. In their proposal, they put the value of the solution as the product and the product under the description. In other words, “reduction in home cooling and heating bill and increased comfort in the home” was the product, and the description included the type of foam and how much. It was much easier for me to review that proposal and then look at the price and justify paying it! After seeing this, I have been toying around with a few client’s proposal structures. Curious, have any of you ever implemented something like this?

Potpourri for 800

Potpourri (shoutout Jeopardy!) is a category that covers a variety of topics.

Here is a link to an incredible thread on air conditioning. Did you know that there are 2 billion AC units in the world? And that AC has had a profound impact on architecture? Prior to AC, the physical location of a building determined many of the architectural choices. Now many cities, regardless of climate, can have very similar buildings. Also, AC has allowed us to build taller and bigger buildings, changing how cities look. This has been happening since its invention in 1901, but you can see that there have been profound changes in recent history. Check out the picture below of Shanghai. Link: https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1784521506317324404

Pretty damn incredible!

Quote for My Son

Every day, I find a quote to share with my son. This was my favorite from this past week:

" Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." — Jim Ryun