Matt Dixon: evaluation

Transcript context

…Amazing. This is a great segue to The Challenger Sale, which we're going to talk about, but let's get through the last two steps and then we'll talk about The Challenger Sale, which is basically this on steroids, this idea on steroids. The last two, so L is about this customer who's doing endless amounts of research. Every salesperson has seen this customer, they're never happy with the number of reference calls or the amount of research they've done. They want to talk to more and more people. They're just in information overload mode and/or what we might call analysis paralysis mode because at some point, they're never satisfied with, they always feel like all the answers will be in the next white paper they read or the next reference call they do, or the next person on LinkedIn they talk to. What salespeople need to do to stop that, you got to understand I think why customers do that. They don't want to be surprised. That is the main reason, but they also don't trust the salesperson to be forthcoming. They believe the salesperson is paid to sell them more than they need, to put one over on them, hide the dirty laundry, only talk about the things that work in the platform, not the things that don't work. You're not going to get introduce any of the customers who hate you. You're only going to introduce the customers who love you, and we know we're going to say great things about us. That's what the customer thinks. That is what is in the customer's mind. You've got to actually shift, get the customer to stop trying to be an expert and start trusting you as an expert. There are two keys to that. The first one is you've got to establish some trust. I know that sounds like a platitude, but we found in the analysis, there are specific things that great salespeople do very early on. They are brutally transparent with customers about like, "Hey, I know you were interested in this capability. I got to be honest, we get mixed reviews on that. It's kind of an early capability for us. We're still trying to iron out the kinks," or "I know you are interested in this used case, but I have to be honest, we're actually not the best in the market at that. Our competitors much better at that than we are." These kinds of moments show the customer that you're not here to put one over on them. You're here to get them to a great decision. It kind of makes no difference to the salesperson, whether the customer buys from them, doesn't buy from them, it buys from a competitor. You just want to help them get to a great decision. That's step number one is building that trust. Step number two is you got to demonstrate some expertise. What we see in so many sales interactions, especially in tech, is that salespeople will show up with the clown car of experts, the subject matter experts, the solutions engineers, the product people, the executive sponsors, and then they will just punt to these people. What happens in that moment is dangerous for the salesperson. The customer, it sounds like they're loving it, right? They're loving that. cutive sponsors, and then they will just punt to these people. What happens in that moment is dangerous for the salesperson. The customer, it sounds like they're loving it, right? They're loving that. I'm talking to the people who really know their stuff, but what's also happening in that moment is the salesperson is actively getting delegated down to the person they sound like. If they don't sound like any more than a glorified emcee or a coordinator, then that's kind of all the customer will perceive them as. What right or ability would you have to guide the customer on what to choose if you've offered no value or expertise? You don't have to be as deep as the product people. You're not going to be, you're a salesperson, you're not a product person, but you do have to be deeper on than the customer, and you do have to demonstrate that expertise. Those are the keys, again, the customer to stop trying to be an expert and start trusting you as their expert. Then, the T is taking risk off the table. Two keys to doing that, I think the first one happens really early actually, and that is resetting the customer's expectations. Average salespeople love when they get an inbound lead from a customer who says, "Hey, I saw that case study on your website of the customer who got the 10X improvement in sales productivity, and we want that. That sounds great." That company's in our industry, amazing. That's a slam dunk business case for us. The average salesperson's thinking like, "If you're excited about that, I'm not going to talk you out of it because that means you're going to be excited to take in the CFO and excited to sign the agreement and get going." What great salespeople do though is they know that while they'll stand by those claims, those case studies, those proof points, they try to kind of under-promise and over-deliver and they might say something along the lines of, "You know Lenny, absolutely, that is a great case. I was involved in that sale, but what we also need to understand is everything went perfectly. They resourced it to the hilt. They had no integration issues, no hiccups. It was beautiful and seamless. I don't think you and I can think of many technology implementations that happened that way. What I'd rather we do is build your business case around a 5X improvement in sales productivity because we see that at least that, in 100% of our implementations. Then, let's set up to over-deliver against that because I think we're going to do better than that based on what I know about your organization, easily 6, 7, 8, 9%, maybe even 10, but we don't want you to just walking in and promising 10X improvement sales productivity. If we finish the year and we're at 7X, if the CFO is now asking her questions when in absolute terms, she should be thrilled with 7X, right? Let's make sure we set ourselves up for success." The other thing you've got to do though is establish some safety net options. There are lots of different shapes and forms.…

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