Human connection is the difference between winning and losing

Hi Friends,

Welcome to Win Rate Wednesday!

In this issue:

1. The Win Rate Podcast - Be The Salesperson Who Doesn't Want To Win The Deal
2. Win Rate Lesson - Who Do We Want to Spend Our Money With?
3. Three Ways I Can Help

[This Week on The Win Rate Podcast]

Joining me on this week’s episode of The Win Rate Podcast to dig into how you can improve your sales effectiveness, elevate the buyer experience and improve your win rates are:

St John Craner, Managing Director at Agrarian Rural Marketing

Brian Dietmeyer, Founder and CEO at CloseStrong & Think! Inc.

Ruben Castano, CEO of 6Connex & Revegy

Listen to the full episode: Be The Salesperson Who Doesn't Want To Win The Deal

[Today’s Win Rate Lesson]

The margin between winning a deal and losing is very slim.

This is especially true in markets when there are no meaningful differences between vendors and the products they sell.

Which is largely the case in every market segment with more than a handful of competitors.

This was reinforced for me recently by a story a friend told me.

Dale said that he was starting a construction project to build a small rental unit at the back of his property behind his house.

I asked him about his process to hire a contractor to do the project.

I wanted to compare it to the process I’d gone through last year to hire a contractor for an apartment renovation in NYC.

Dale said that once he had his architectural plans approved by the city he lived in, he started searching for a general contractor to build the unit.

He did his research online, spoke to a number of friends who’d used contractors and identified five firms as potential candidates.

He interviewed all five before narrowing his choices down and asking the three finalists to submit bids.

The estimates he had from all three contractors were very similar.

The references he spoke with for all three firms were uniformly positive.

He felt confident that any of the three would do a good job.

But he didn’t know how to decide among them. He was stuck.

Then one day Dale walked into his local grocery store and ran into John, the owner of one of the three finalists.

They had a conversation standing over the vegetables in the produce aisle.

Dale told me that even though he’d previously interviewed John, he felt he really hadn’t gotten to know him.

It turns out that John lives in the same neighborhood as Dale. They know people in common. Their kids had attended the same local schools.

In those moments standing over the lettuce and carrots in the store a human connection was established.

Dale told me that as he walked out of the store he decided “That’s who I want to spend my money with.”

Which is exactly what your buyers are saying.

For example, there are market segments in SaaS, such as conversational intelligence, with more than 100 competitors. As far as buyers are concerned, the products all largely do the same things for roughly the same price.

So, when buyers make their decision about which vendor to work with, it rarely comes down to product features or price.

My experience has been that more often than not, it comes down to the buyer’s personal experience with the seller. On the big things and the little. Like forming a connection on a human level.

Which can influence who they want to spend their money with.

And create that small margin of victory that is the slim difference between winning and losing.

[Three Ways I Can Help]

Master the 4 core human competencies that dictate your success in sales: Connection, Curiosity, Understanding and Generosity and become the seller you want to be.

1-1 Win Rate Coaching

Unless you’re winning more than 50% of your qualified opportunities your win rate is unacceptably low. Let's change that.

Hire Me as a Keynote Speaker

Most salespeople have all the training they need. Often what they need to achieve at higher levels is a fresh perspective, and a new framework, to effectively put their skills to use for their buyers. I’ve helped sellers and teams around the world do this. Let me help you.

Good selling,

Andy