Tag: Sales

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Marketing Startup

To win against competitors – Tell a different and new story

Most marketers (and founders) like to do competitive analysis and follow the leader.

The natural instinct is to check what’s working for the competition and then try to outdo them.

They try to be “cheaper” or “faster” than their competitor.

The problem with this approach is – that once the market believes in someone else’s story, convincing them that you are “better” than your competitor is the same as convincing them they were wrong in believing your competitor’s story.

And nobody likes to admit that they’re wrong.

Instead, the better approach is – you tell a different story.

You convince the market that your story is more “relevant” to their new evolving and future needs than the story they currently believe.

That way, you are not telling them that they were wrong.

You are just telling them that the world has evolved now.

And it’s time to re-evaluate their needs.

If your competition is selling the story of “visibility”, you sell the story of “productivity”.

If they sell the story of “intelligence”, you sell the story of “collaboration”.

If they sell the story of “best-of-breed”, you sell the story of “all-in-one”.

You get the idea.

You need to tell a new story, that’s relevant to their new world.

Categories
Sales Startup

The Collaborative Selling Handbook

When products and GTM playbooks are becoming commodity, how can startups win against incumbents and also with their competitors? 🤔

The answer is simple.

It’s the speed of execution. ⚡️💨

But how do you ensure you’re able to execute faster without getting off the rails? 🚆

It’s the alignment. 🤝

But how do you ensure everyone is aligned with different projects and goals? 🎯

It’s the system of collaboration. 💬

System of what??

Collaboration.

Is it a new thing? Or a new tool?

Yes and No.

2 decades ago, we needed an efficient way to capture who are our customers and log our interactions with them, so the “Systems of Records” were born – e.g. CRM, ERP, etc. 👩‍💻

Then a decade ago, we needed a more efficient way to engage with customers, so the “Systems of Engagement” were born – e.g. Live Chat, Email Sequencing, Power Dialers, etc. 📧

Then 5 years ago, we needed to make sense of all these activities and engagements, so the “Systems of Intelligence” were born – e.g. Revenue Intelligence, Conversational Intelligence, etc. 📈

Today, we need to make decisions and our conversations actionable, so the “Systems of Collaboration” are being born – e.g. Collaborative Meetings, Collaborative Emails, Collaborative Projects, etc. 💬

Essentially, almost for every job you do, if the tool you are using is not enabling you to collaborate with your colleagues and customers, and if it’s not connected with your workflows and other tools, you’re at a disadvantage as a startup to execute faster and better.

Selling is no different.

In fact, it’s completely stupid to believe that only quota carrying people are responsible for selling. 🤦‍♂️

It takes a village to close most deals. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

And if you’re not thinking selling as hyper-collaborative function, then you’re not winning as fast and as efficiently than your peers who are practicing collaborative selling.

I’ve been talking about this for the last 2 years via different forums and mediums.

But finally got the time to jot down all thoughts in a consolidated eBook. 📖

👉 Feel free to grab a copy from here: https://www.avoma.com/books/the-collaborative-selling-handbook

Hope it will help you make “collaborative selling” as your competitive advantage.

Categories
Sales

Outbound Works

Inbound marketing and recruiting are all good.👌👏

But when you close a deal or candidate with outbound, it’s extremely exhilarating and inspiring. 🤩💪

Outbound works. You just have to make it about “them” and not about “you”.

Remember, if you don’t reach out and ask, the answer is “No” anyways! 🤷‍♂️

Categories
SaaS Sales

Predictable Revenue

Predictable Revenue happens when you have a Predictable Pipeline.

Predictable Pipeline happens when you have a Predictable Salesperson.

Predictable Salesperson happens when you have a Predictable Day (Calendar).

Predictable Day happens when you have a Predictable Routine (Habits).

“You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

It’s about daily habits, not about the end goals.

Create a repeatable process for yourself that you can do every single day without fail.

Focus on actions you control rather than putting all the pressure on results that might not come.

Categories
SaaS Sales

Active Listening

70% of salespeople are saying selling remotely is not as effective as selling in person. 😳 (survey by Corporate Visions).

They say, audience’s multi-tasking, limited interaction, and passive presentations are the main reasons. 😟

How do we help them? 🤔

Give more emphasis on Active Listening! 🎧

Most of you are already aware of what is Active Listening and why it is one of the most important skills in sales.

But do you know “why” it is more important than ever in the remote selling environment? 🧐

And do you improve your Active Listening skills in this remote selling environment? 😇

Learn more about it in a detailed post with a few actionable tips 👉: https://www.avoma.com/blog/active-listening-sales-skill-remote-selling

Categories
SaaS Sales Startup

How To Win Competitive Deals

The conventional practice is to convince prospects that your product is superior to your competitor’s.

But it’s not required. There is an alternative option.

It might be sufficient to convince prospects what’s good about your product with a clear, honest, and informative way.

I even have a slide in our Sales deck that tells prospects about the gaps in our product that they will miss in the near term when they switch over from our competitors to us.

If the prospect feels certain that your product is good, and appreciates your honesty, it’s very likely that they will still buy your product.

Categories
Entrepreneurship SaaS Sales Startup

Predictable Salesperson

You have probably heard of Predictable Pipeline and Predictable Revenue.

But have you heard of Predictable Salesperson?

It’s the one who builds the Predictable Pipeline to deliver the Predictable Revenue.

Predictable Salesperson believes in – “You are what you repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

She believes – how you choose to live your days is how you choose to live your life.

She’s putting in the time and effort every day to reach the success she truly wants.

She’s skipping binge-watching the new series because she’s working towards something bigger.

These are the decisions that define who a Predictable Salesperson is and how successful they become as a sales professional.

It’s about daily habits, not about the end goals.

How do you become a Predictable Salesperson?

Create a repeatable process for yourself that you can do every single day without fail.

Focus on actions you control rather than putting all the pressure on results that might not come.

Categories
Entrepreneurship SaaS Sales Startup

“Maybe” Is Not The Worst Response In Sales Anymore

The common adage in Sales is “maybe” is the worst response you could get from the prospect.

It’s better to get “no” than “maybe”.

“Maybe” is a land of hope. Reps shouldn’t waste time there and instead seek “no” and chase new opportunities.

But is it still true with the modern B2B and SaaS buying behavior?

With the power of buying is shifting to buyers, are Sales reps being forced to be very transactional?

Your prospects might have other burning fires going right now. Sometimes the need is there, but the timing is not right.

They’re getting the job done just fine right now. But the need could go stronger as their world evolves.

Just because it’s a “maybe” right now, it’s not a “no” in the future.

“You can’t turn a no to a yes without a maybe in between.” – Francis Underwood

What should Sales reps do when they get “maybe”s?

• List down the most common objections that cause your prospects to answer with a “maybe”.
• Educate sales reps to approach these objections with new sense of purpose and respect the buyer’s world.
• Craft an outreach email campaign to stay on “top of mind” and provide continuous education value.

And eventually when their need becomes stronger, their “maybe” will turn into a “yes”.

Categories
Philosophy Sales

Just Do It, Together

Nike’s new Ad “You can’t stop us” deserves all the praise and attention as it’s an incredible achievement in video editing.

But I think they missed one thing.

They could have updated their tag line to – “Just do it, together”.

“Doing it together” is how we achieve greatness in our life.

Even if you’re playing an individual sport, you achieve greatness with a team of coaches, physicians, etc.

They may not be with you in the field, but you can’t perform and excel without their help.

Today’s modern sales is very similar.

Individual Sales reps don’t close deals on their own – especially in B2B SaaS or Enterprise solutions.

It takes a village.

Modern selling is “collaborative selling”.

It’s about how efficiently your team can collaborate with all key stakeholders to close a deal and serve a customer.

You will have to adopt tools that enable frictionless collaboration.

It will be your competitive advantage.

Just sell it, together.

Categories
Philosophy Sales

3 Kinds of “Yes”

I didn’t know that not all “Yes” are the same.

When Chris Voss shared his secret in the book “Never split the difference”, it opened my eyes.

There are actually three kinds of “Yes”: Counterfeit, Confirmation, and Commitment.

A counterfeit “yes” is one in which your counterpart plans to say “no”, but either feel “yes” is an easier escape route or just wanted to disingenuously keep the conversation going to obtain more information from you.

A confirmation “yes” is generally an innocent response to block-or-white questions. Mostly it’s just simple affirmation but no promise of action.

And a commitment “yes” is a real deal – a true agreement that leads to action.

The commitment “yes” is what you want, but the other two types also sound the same, we confuse ourselves to believe we have a commitment “yes”, but instead, we have either of the other two.

If the counterpart doesn’t take some kind of follow-up action, then it’s most likely not a “commitment”, but a “confirmation”.

The conversation might also look like a “commitment” in the beginning, but very soon can lead to a “counterfeit” after you provide the necessary information and then they ghost you.

Hope this helps you recognize which “yes” is being used so you can truly know when to seal the deal.