Sales: convincing customers, buying perspectives and scalable processes

Ahead of the Digital Tech Cluster workshop Selling: Six Customer Questions You Must Answer on Thursday 2nd May, I sat down for a chat with sales expert Clive Miller. After many years in sales and sales leadership, Clive founded SalesSense in 1996. Together with his team, he has helped countless companies and individuals improve their sales performance.

James: What tips would you give to a tech startup entering a market when they are trying to convince a potential customer to use their innovative new product over the existing, well-established product/solution?

Clive: First, establish if a prospect has a need that is fixed or resolved by the desired action. There have to be convincing benefits that flow through to the bottom line.

Most businesses and individuals have experienced vendor claims that proved to be unfounded. Having verifiable proof that your claims are true is essential. Anecdotal evidence such as testimonials and even case studies may not be thought of as verifiable evidence.

It is important to have true stories of others who are like the prospect, who have taken the desired action and achieved the promised results. These stories need to be specific, naming names, detailing circumstances, and quantifying outcomes.

The benefits must be significant if they are to motivate change. Replacing a well-established and effective service is fraught with career-damaging risks for all involved in the decisions.

Tech companies focus on scaling their product but sometimes do not fully consider how to scale their sales and on-boarding process. What factors should tech founders consider when trying to align high sales growth with scaling the sales team and processes?

Far too little attention is paid to proving a workable sales model before hiring salespeople. Instead, salespeople are expected to work it out for themselves. Sometimes this strategy is successful. More often, the first salespeople in a tech company are left to sink or swim and they often sink. Paying a big salary or high commission is no guarantee of success.

The blame is placed on a bad hire yet it is more probably a lack of forethought, planning and preparation on the part of the hirer in working out their sales and hiring process in advance. The cost of a hiring mistake is hard enough to bear for established companies. For start-ups and scale-ups, it can be a death knell. At the very best, it sets things back by months.

Just as in marketing, there are three important factors in growing sales. Test, test, and test some more. Develop a process that produces reliable results, then continually improve it. When you have a proven go-to-market sales process, you can hire salespeople with confidence. If your process is unproven, you are investing in the ‘hope’ strategy.

John D. Rockefeller said, “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the Sun.” this is a very important factor in any business. It is critical for salespeople. Managing salespeople is different. Much is the same however, salespeople are hired for their entrepreneurial bent, excess enthusiasm, and indomitable spirit. Sales management skills are a superset of those needed by most managers.

If you have a proven and reliable sales process, on-boarding and management become more straightforward.

What are the top 3 skills or attributes you think founders should look for when hiring a salesperson?

First, three attributes are completely inadequate for selecting someone who is highly likely to succeed in a particular sales environment however, if I could only pick three, they would be;

1. Extensive pre-existing relationships with communities of the right customers.
2. An in-depth understanding of what is being sold, the market being addressed, and the customers being sold to.
3. A passion fuelled by gung-ho intrinsic motivators such as achievement, interest, and challenge.

What are the main reasons why customers decline a sales meeting? Are there any ways to reduce the likelihood of these?

• If a vendor has no reputation or market position, there can be no assumed trust.
• If a suspect has no perceived need, accepting a sales call is most likely going to be a waste of time.

Which should be established first, trust or need? It is unclear.

If the seller has a pre-existing relationship or can engineer a high-value introduction it can be possible to start with need. In the absence of any relationship, it may be essential to first establish some trust. Every situation is different which is why it is so hard to systemise selling.

How do you identify who the decision-makers and budget holders are in a business?

The answer is not clear. I categorise six buying perspectives for a B2B sale:

1. The official decision maker – the person who can say yes.
2. The assessors – the people appointed to do the due diligence.
3. VETO – whoever the official decision maker reports to. This might be stakeholders.
4. Approvers – the people who are tasked with policing the organisation’s buying policies and procedures
5. Users – those who will be required to use what is bought to get their jobs done.
6. Decision influencers – people not directly involved yet who have significant influence.

Each situation is dependent on the personalities involved as well as their respective buying roles and personal agendas.

Thanks for answering my questions Clive, some interesting perspectives, I look forward to talking more at the workshop!

If you would like to learn what Clive considers are the six key questions that customers want answers to, please register for the workshop via the link below:

Selling: Six Customer Questions You Must Answer Tickets, Thu 2 May 2024 at 12:00 | Eventbrite

The Digital Tech Cluster has lots of activity happening in the next few weeks. You can find out more and register for all the workshops via this article.

Thanks for reading.

James Bedford

#Sales #Selling #SalesTips #SalesAdvice #customersuccess #tech #digital #startup #scaleup #DigitalDaresbury

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