Finding your Hook

How do you confirm best strategy on selling your startup product to your customers? 

Just like fishing you need the right hook to land your customer. 

In all my career the best way to sell has been knowing what my customers will respond to best. Knowing that if I say “X” then they will likely respond with a “Y”.  

If they do not respond in the way I expect them either I do not understand them well enough or they are not the right customer.  

Before you know what hook to use, here are some questions you could ask:

1. Why did you accept my call or meeting request? (This will help you know if they have something pressing to tell you now. Such as they need to purchase immediately or they have an emergency that they need your help with.  
2.  What are you currently using and are you happy with it?  (Deeper understanding. You could also ask them a NPS (Net Promoter Score) question to drill down deeper.  
3.  If you were wanting to make a chance, what would cause you to take action?  (Getting deeper into their motivation to change and how likely they will do it).  
4.  What is your organisation’s decision process?  (By far this is the most important question to ask in a meeting. It helps you and the customer to start thinking about steps needed to turn this into a reality).  

These steps are you need to over time uncover the right approach to sell to your customers. 

Top 10 Sales Methodologies - by HubSpot

In a recent article, HubSpot has listed the following top ten sales methodologies:

1. SPIN Selling
2. NEAT Selling
3. Conceptual Selling
4. SNAP Selling
5. The Challenger Sale
6. The Sandler System
7. CustomerCentric Selling
8. MEDDIC
9. Solution Selling  
10. Inbound Selling  

A couple of methodologies were completely new to me.  

Behind each of these methodologies, is a sales training company that makes money from teaching and training it all over the world.  

Some of them rely on claiming to have researched thousands of organisations in order to develop their methodology.

I am suspicious about “independent research” that has not been independently peer reviewed. It is too much of a leap of faith for me to believe.  

On the positive, a sales methodology helps the organisation to have a commmon reference point and a good way to onboard new staff.  

So shop around and find out what methodology suits your startup best! More importantly make sure the sales trainer you hire knows how to translate the theory into applicable knowledge.

 https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/6-popular-sales-methodologies-summarized

Three Simple Steps to get a meeting with a prospective customer

A customer cannot purchase from you unless they know you first. The first meeting with a senior executive allows you to build a relationship which might lead to future sales.

Step One: Call out what you have in common 

You must find a way to establish an existing connection with your target customer. The stronger the connection the more likely they will keep reading.  

Step Two: Explain what you do, the value you bring and what you need from them 

 It needs to be a simple way of introducing your startup and how you could help them. You also want to outline your intention to ask for advice or to share something of value with them. 

Step Three: Ask for a meeting at a specific time 

Asking someone if they can meet you at a certain day and time often makes people check their availability before they think about whether they want to meet you in the first place! It is a little hack that will increase your chances of a meeting.

Sending these emails may look simple, but it is not easy. Follow this process and keep your wording simple and uncomplicated. 

How to avoid joining startups that will go nowhere

Steve Jobs had a powerful influencing skill, that his engineers called the “Distortion Reality Field” . He could convince his engineers that a particular feature WAS possible, despite universal agreement before the meeting that it was not. Walter Isaacson’s biography on Jobs illustrated how this helped engineers to turn what was impossible into a reality. 

Early stage startup technical founders can also display this skill. They are convinced that the technology they have just given birth to will take over the world. 

Unfortunarely in their case this can be a very bad thing. The majority of startup founders are not billionaires with huge resources and talent to make things happen. They will waste many months of your career chasing rainbows and unicorns. 

Here is what you can do to detect a distortion reality field: 

• Speak to their customers. Why did they buy the product? What is the maximum amount they will pay on renewal? Make sure they are not getting a free trial or heavily subsidised subscription. 
• Understand the real business value (not technical value) that their product offers. At some point a business leader within an organisation needs to sign a check. They need to be convinced it will bring value to the business.  
• Try to understand what has been been the obstacles in the past with selling this product. What will make it the future any different?

Look past the glittering lights and see what it’s actual value is. 

By doing this you will potentially be saving yourself 6-24 months of your career.  

Liking your customers

Do you like your customers? 

You can always tell if someone does not like you.  

We all want to be accepted and liked. If there are reasons that prevents you from liking a challenging customer then you need to decide:

1. Drop them as a customer.  
2. Concentrate on the two or three things that you can like about them and focus on that.  

Sliding vs. Deciding

You have have been working with a prospective customer that is very unhappy with their current vendor.

They indicate they are very keen to switch across to your startup.  

Is the sale now in the bag? 

Maybe... 

If your customer is small or has a simple decision process, it shouls be easier for them to change. 

Compare this with romantic relationships. Many couples usually “slide” for big decisions such as moving in together or buying a house.  

However when one partner decides to leave the relationship, that is a Big Change! 

The following relationship article talks about the comparison between sliding and deciding. https://couplestherapyinc.com/relationship-transitions/ 

Even if they hate the incumbent vendor, it will be less disruptive to stay than to switch across to you!

My advice is to work the sales process as hard as you can until the contract has been signed! Breaking up a relationship is more traumatic than starting a new one. 

Another way to create new sales leads (Startup Founders)

Most first time startup founders have little sales experience. 

A strategy I have not mentioned previously is increasing sales through aligning with suitable partners. 

Big vendors can use you compliment and enhance their value to their customers. 

You might need to surrender a few percentage points along the way, but you should make up for it by increased sales.

Good partners can have the following characteristics:  

• They make between $100M and a Billion dollars per year.  
• Manage long term customer relationships. 
• Are well connected to big deals in the market.
• Their insider knowledge is very high.  

Selling through a partner you need to remember:

• You will now manage at least two customer relationships, the partner and the end customer
• Be sensitive to the needs and preferences of your partner. Be careful to not do things that causes problems. If they say, don’t contact a particular executive, then don’t do it! I learnt that lesson the hard way a few years back.  
• Their relationships are long term and built on strong trust. Do not take any action that breaches that trust. Be open to feedback so that you can improve. 

Never Eat Alone

It is important to maintain your network of past colleagues and bosses. There are both personal and commercial benefits for doing this. 

On the personal, you get to maintain friendships which is very rewarding. We all need friends and connections.  

There is also a huge upside on the commercial side if you are in a startup sales role. All these former peers and boses know and trust you and are willing to help you succeed. They will give you insights into their current organisations as well as introduce you to new sales opportunities.  It’s a win-win for everyone.  

In startup sales there is no silver bullet on getting B2B customers, you need to be trying multiple strands. Catching up for coffee or meals with former colleagues is one of the easiest ways.  

A book that I know expands on this topic is Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. 

I challenge you to give these meetings a try!

Catch up with five former colleagues or bosses and see what happens! 

Major Sales: Who really does the buying?

This HBR article was originally published in 1982. However the findings are as relevant now as they were 37 years ago. 

The authors shared these three findings: 

1. Identifying the actual decision maker is not as easy as it sounds.  Power does not always correlate with organisational position. The authors describe how there are actually five bases of power and provides six behavioural clues to uncover who the real decision maker is!
2. Identify the way in which buyers act in their self interest.  It is a fact that buyers act selfishly. The article shares techniques to determine a customer’s motivation. 
3. Gather and Apply Psychological Intelligence of your buyers.  These three proposed changes should be implemented: a) make sure that sales calls highly productive and informative, b) listen to your sales force, c) reward regorous fact gathering by the sales team.  

I support these findings because I can see how startups can capture significant value from these practices.  

Five emerging Trends that will shape the future of Sales

A few months back Tiffani Bova wrote this article on the Salesforce blog regarding the emerging trends in Sales. It is a good article that makes you think  

Here is a quick overview with my comments added (PD): 

 Emerging Trend One: 50% of Sales Metrics will change in the next three years.

TB: Sales leaders will be seeking to get deeper into the customer journey in regards to measuring the success of sales teams. Budgets and win rates are not going away but metrics along the lines of customer satisfaction will be included. 

PD: I don’t believe the change will be that significant because from what I have seen Sales will always be measured by what it has control. Sales teams do not usually control customer success. They are tasked with getting the customer to confirm as soon as they are possibly able to! Customer Success is important but my mixing it into sales too much you risk missing that next quarter earnings for the firm. And as everyone who works in sales knows, sales is about tangible results!  

Emerging Trend Two: Reps will be compensated on usage not deal size. 

TB: This change means that closing a deal is less important than getting a greater amount of users to successfully use it. Reps will be compensated more if a greater number of users take up the product. 

PD: I think this is a fascinating insight! This will mean that during the sales process the Rep won’t just be focussed on getting ink on the contract, but work hard to get more stakeholders buying into the application. It will lead to better adoption by the organisation and more success down the track. 

Emerging Trend Three:  Customer service agents are the new Sales Reps. 

TB: She is talking about how Customer Service and Customer Success staff will become just as empowered as Sales Reps currently are within the organisation.

PD: I can see the benefits of some larger SaaS organisations doing this. However the risk is that if Customer Success becomes more commercial they may dilute the skills that set them apart in the first place. Customers like Customer Success because they have only one focus. Customers feel more safe to open up to a CSR about what their real challenge is.  

Emerging Trend Four: Modern selling continues to explanatory into more digital channels. 

TB: The lines between B2B and B2C will blur. Customer engagement will increase on emerging channels: SMS, chat, mobile chat and video.  

PD: I agree this is happening and is being driven by both the sales professional and the customer. 

Emerging Trend Five: AI will require more sales headcount, not less. 

TB: Studies show that AI is leading to more job growth, not less. 

PD: For the past 3 years AI has been oversold as a panacea to solve all of life’s problems. One day we will all be enslaved by our AI masters! 😵 But at least for now AI is playing a supportive - not a lead role.