Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 135: "The Sales Reset" with Wesleyne Whittaker

Transcript

Episode 135: "The Sales Reset" with Wesleyne Whittaker · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast, brought to you by
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello BD Pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? Now? Look, you've
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: tried every script, You've followed every playbook, and still still
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: the deal stall. The problem isn't you or your pitch,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: it's what you believe about selling. Well, those are some
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: fantastic words from our guest author today, wes Lean Whittaker,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm so excited to have her talk about her
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  Speaker 2: brand new book. It's called trans Well. Well, I'm not
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: going to tell you the title right now because I'm
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: going to keep it a secret. You know what I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: not going to keep a secret. I am not going
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: to keep a secret about this book that many of
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: you in the business development profession know about. It's the
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Business Development Body of Knowledge, and the Body of Knowledge
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  Speaker 2: is the universal document that we as business developers can
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: read and understand. The business development profession across industries speak
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: the same language. And then when you read the book,
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  Speaker 2: you can then go to the Global Business Development Association
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and be able to subscribe to get your Business Development
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Professional certification. Learn more by going to GBD Association dot org. Okay,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: now let's reveal the title of Weslean's new book. It's
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  Speaker 2: The Sales Reset Forget the scripts and trust yourself when
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  Speaker 2: consists instant lee. Now, in this book, you know you're
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  Speaker 2: going to find that there's a really compelling methodology here
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  Speaker 2: in the book, The Sales Reset, and it's all about
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  Speaker 2: a system that helps sales professionals escape outdated tactics. And
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  Speaker 2: you know with this solution, what it enables you to
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  Speaker 2: do is instead of pushing harder, chasing those buyers and
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  Speaker 2: performing a script, you'll learn to reset the way you
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  Speaker 2: think about selling so you can begin winning with consistency
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  Speaker 2: and confidence. And let me tell you a little bit
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  Speaker 2: more about wes Lean. She's the founder of Transformed Sales. Now,
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  Speaker 2: why do CEOs hire. They don't hire her because they
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  Speaker 2: need sales training. They hire her because their sales team
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  Speaker 2: is underperforming and no one can explain why. They've replaced leaders.
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  Speaker 2: They've invested in tools, and they've tried quick wins, but
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  Speaker 2: the numbers are still inconsistent. PIAT blind meetings feel like
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  Speaker 2: guesswork and only a few reps carry the weight. That's
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  Speaker 2: not a sales rep problem. It's a leadership and it's
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  Speaker 2: a system problem. And that's where wes Lean helped CEOs
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  Speaker 2: fix exactly what's broken. So, with no further ado, I
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  Speaker 2: would love to bring Weslan to the stage. Wes Lean,
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  Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us
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  Speaker 2: a little bit about how you have a long career
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  Speaker 2: in sales and business development. Can you tell folks a
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  Speaker 2: little bit about how you got started in the profession
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  Speaker 2: and why did you write the book?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, thanks so much for having me, Tony. I'm excited
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  Speaker 3: to be here and with your audience. So I'm a
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  Speaker 3: recovering chemist. I start my career in the patrick chemical
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: field as a failure analysis chemist and then I fell
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  Speaker 3: in love with sales. It made a really quick assent
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  Speaker 3: from individual contributor to international sales manager. And as an
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  Speaker 3: international sales manager, what I realized is my people were
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  Speaker 3: not performing as well as I was when I was
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  Speaker 3: an individual contributor, and so what I had to do
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  Speaker 3: as a manager was really understand why. It wasn't really
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  Speaker 3: how their skill level, it wasn't how long they had
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  Speaker 3: been in the profession or whether they had a degree
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  Speaker 3: or didn't have a degree. What it really boiled down
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  Speaker 3: to was their belief system, their mindset, how that gritted
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  Speaker 3: those inner thinks inside them. That's what really determined the
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  Speaker 3: strong performers from those who were just barely making quota.
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  Speaker 3: So as I stepped into starting my business about seven
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  Speaker 3: and a half years ago, I really focused on that
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  Speaker 3: I performed. Sorry, I focused more on the mindset, the
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  Speaker 3: belief systems, and less on the skills, because what I
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  Speaker 3: found is when we help people believe in themselves, when
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  Speaker 3: we help them with better mental resilience the skills that
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  Speaker 3: we teach them, it cuts the time that it needs
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  Speaker 3: for them to be implemented in half, sometimes down to
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  Speaker 3: twenty five percent, because they then believe in themselves. So
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  Speaker 3: I wrote the book because people really kept saying, Wes Leine,
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  Speaker 3: when are you gonna write a book? When are you
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  Speaker 3: gona write a book? When are gonna write a book?
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  Speaker 3: And I went to a conference at the end of
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty four and every single speaker had a book,
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  Speaker 3: and I said, it's time I must.
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  Speaker 2: Do this now. Yeah, well it is time, wes Lean
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  Speaker 2: for you to tell us a little bit more about
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  Speaker 2: the book. I always like to ask our guest authors
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  Speaker 2: about their top three takeaways of their book. And I
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  Speaker 2: really like a system that where you emphasize the word resilience.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's so critical in our profession because
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  Speaker 2: it is stressful to try and hit your numbers and
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  Speaker 2: having that resilience as an individ is critical. But I
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  Speaker 2: think the other key point of that resiliency is the
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  Speaker 2: resilience in the processes and the resilience of the organization.
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  Speaker 2: And I really like also how you with your consulting
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  Speaker 2: business and with your book and folks, again, the name
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  Speaker 2: of the book is the sales reset, forget the scripts,
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  Speaker 2: trust yourself and win consistently. Weslean, I think you have
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  Speaker 2: a copy of your book right there too, and there
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  Speaker 2: we go, Yeah, look at that. Oh that's the hard
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  Speaker 2: copy version. Very nice. Yeah, And I think you know,
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  Speaker 2: the processes that you talk about are what And I
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  Speaker 2: like what you said too about looking at your organization
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  Speaker 2: and if you have one or two people that are
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  Speaker 2: the heroes every time carrying the load, there's a problem
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  Speaker 2: there because you hired capable people. There's a fundamental issue
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  Speaker 2: in the process. Something is happening in your organization. It's
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  Speaker 2: not resilient enough to distribute that load across the entire team.
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  Speaker 2: So I can't wait to jump into the three key
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  Speaker 2: takeaways from your book. Let's start with number one.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So I think the key takeaways kind of run
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  Speaker 3: across to what I'm introduced in the book. It's called
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  Speaker 3: belief selling. So belief selling is the framework that we
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  Speaker 3: as salespeople, we as humans, actually need to follow in
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  Speaker 3: order to learn new things. So oftentimes a lot of
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  Speaker 3: training and development starts with learn this new thing. Go,
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to teach you how to cold call, and
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  Speaker 3: so here's the scripts. Here are the perfect people to call.
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  Speaker 3: Do it, do it, do it. But really, how true
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  Speaker 3: transformation really works is first we have to identify and
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  Speaker 3: break those barriers. So what is actually holding me back? Yes,
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  Speaker 3: I need to cold call more, But I have a
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  Speaker 3: fear of rejection. I have a fear that when somebody
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  Speaker 3: doesn't answer the phone, when they hang up the phone
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  Speaker 3: in my face, when they tell me I'm annoying, like
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  Speaker 3: that impacts me as a human. And why does that
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  Speaker 3: impact me? Maybe as a child I was rejected, Maybe
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  Speaker 3: I got laid off from my last job. There are
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  Speaker 3: things within that we really have to understand where that's
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  Speaker 3: coming from. And after we identify what's holding us back,
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  Speaker 3: then we have to understand that growth is hard. It
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  Speaker 3: is going to be hard to change that mindset and
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  Speaker 3: change that behavior because we've been doing it for such
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  Speaker 3: a long time. So we identify our barrier, then we
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  Speaker 3: embrace growth, we do the hard things. We say, Okay,
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  Speaker 3: So I know that I do not enjoy cold calling,
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  Speaker 3: and it's because of my fear of rejection. So what
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  Speaker 3: I'm gonna do is I'm going to do it first
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  Speaker 3: thing in the morning because my brain is wide awake
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  Speaker 3: and I can deal with more rejection early in the
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  Speaker 3: morning than I can late at debt late in the day.
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  Speaker 3: And that's how you really step into doing the hard thing, right,
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  Speaker 3: Like you have to come up with a plan, you
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  Speaker 3: have to come up with the this is how I'm
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  Speaker 3: actually going to execute this thing. So I think that's
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  Speaker 3: the first takeaway that learning isn't just about learning the skill,
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  Speaker 3: It's about unlearning the old thing in order to relearn
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  Speaker 3: the new thing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I like how you address the fear component
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  Speaker 2: of this, because the fear of rejection is the most
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  Speaker 2: powerful fear that humans can experience. It's a very powerful emotion,
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  Speaker 2: and it's rooted in neuroscience and it's connected directly to
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  Speaker 2: the same centers of the brain that feel actual physical pain. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: so there have been studies out there actually if you
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  Speaker 2: take some sort of painkiller, it actually numbs the feeling
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  Speaker 2: of rejection. And you know, fundamentally this goes back to
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  Speaker 2: prehistoric times when humans operated as tribes and if you
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  Speaker 2: were rejected from the tribe, hang it up, you were
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  Speaker 2: wooly mammoth lunch. And so it's still sowing with us
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  Speaker 2: even in modern society, when some of these fears are
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  Speaker 2: really absolutely irrational, you know, and we can rationalize through
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  Speaker 2: this idea that okay, well it's just business. I was
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  Speaker 2: cold calling. I was just doing my job. They got upset,
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  Speaker 2: not get it. You know, they were probably in the
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  Speaker 2: middle of something. I get upset probably when people call
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  Speaker 2: me to h and rationalize that a way. No, we
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  Speaker 2: internalize it, and it just it hurts us. And that
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  Speaker 2: really demands a belief system, doesn't it Weslean, It does?
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  Speaker 2: It does? It does.
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  Speaker 3: And when you internalize things instead of like processing them
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  Speaker 3: and understanding the origin, like why is this happening to me?
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  Speaker 3: And then come up with a plan of attack to
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  Speaker 3: actually overcome the thing. Then it holds you back and
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  Speaker 3: you don't realize while you have this lumpy, inconsistent pipeline,
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  Speaker 3: you don't understand why you can't continuously hit your goals.
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  Speaker 3: You'll hit them, then you don't hit them. You'll hit them,
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  Speaker 3: then you don't hit them. And it's really about going
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  Speaker 3: back to what we said at the beginning, that mental
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  Speaker 3: toughness and resilience, really building those things within us so
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  Speaker 3: that we can execute at a higher level.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, and I also like what you said
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  Speaker 2: about getting it started in the morning. That's a great
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  Speaker 2: idea too. As they always say, do the hard stuff first,
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  Speaker 2: and that's probably the hardest thing to do. I just
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  Speaker 2: did my outreach this morning too before getting on the show,
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  Speaker 2: So it's great to get those done. That way, you
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  Speaker 2: feel like you've you have probably more energy. It's probably
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  Speaker 2: also a good time to reach your prospects too, because
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: maybe they're a little bit more accepting and a little
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  Speaker 2: less under the tight timelines late afternoon to try to
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  Speaker 2: get things done where they may have it their own
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  Speaker 2: fear response, and anger is a fear response, and so
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  Speaker 2: it's important for us to understand that a lot of
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  Speaker 2: this is in the business development body of knowledge. I
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  Speaker 2: love that you include this in your book, and it's
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  Speaker 2: the top takeaway, the number one takeaway, So let's jump
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  Speaker 2: right into takeaway number two.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the next most important thing that I would say
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  Speaker 3: is understanding what I call pains, problems, and impacts. So
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  Speaker 3: oftentimes I feel like we focus on the pain, and
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  Speaker 3: a pain is annoying, right, people deal with pain, You'll
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  Speaker 3: deal with If you have a headache, that's a pain,
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  Speaker 3: it's annoying, right, Versus if that headache is caused by
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: a tumor, that's a problem. Right, that's a big, overarching
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  Speaker 3: thing that we need to address. It's the same thing
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  Speaker 3: that happens in the business context. Oftentimes, our product solved pains, right.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're selling some type of software and somebody
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  Speaker 3: has a process that's taking them ten hours, your software
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  Speaker 3: helps them solve it in two hours. So what do
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: we do as salespeople, as business development reps? We go
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  Speaker 3: and we ask about so, tell me about your process,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: tell me how this is working. Well, oh, I can
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  Speaker 3: fix that, And immediately we want to jump in. We
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: want to fix the pain. But that's not what is
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: sitting on our prospect brain, they're thinking about the overarching problem. So, yes,
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  Speaker 3: this process takes ten hours. And because it takes ten hours,
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  Speaker 3: that runs across two different shifts, and sometimes they have
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: to pay over time and they're thinking about, Hey, it's
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the middle of the year and I'm already over my
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: budget for my employees. So if I, as a salesperson,
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  Speaker 3: speak to the prospect's problem the big thing on their
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  Speaker 3: brain versus, oh, this is just going to save you time,
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  Speaker 3: My ability to close the deal faster is going to
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: increase because I'm speaking their language. And then we really
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: have to think about, Okay, what is the impact of
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: this problem, So if you solve it versus if you
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: don't solve this problem. And so when we go into
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  Speaker 3: discovery calls and we speak in problem language and impact language,
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  Speaker 3: we're moving from just being a surface level salesperson, so
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: truly stepping into what I like to call problem focus
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: customer centric selling. So we're focusing on the problems our
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: prospect is having and we're helping them move along that
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: buying journey that we want to get them on.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love this three step process that you're talking about.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, it's addressing the pain and understanding that pain.
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  Speaker 2: But more importantly, the key point is to don't stop there,
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  Speaker 2: get to the root problem, because that fundamentally is what
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  Speaker 2: your prospect is concerned about. They want to solve the problem.
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  Speaker 2: It's no different than going to a doctor and if
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you walk in with a cut on your leg and
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: they give you, you know, a band aid. No, you
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  Speaker 2: want to solve the problem. The problem is I have
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  Speaker 2: a cut, I need stitches. Yeah, yeah, you don't give
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  Speaker 2: me just a painkiller and a band aid here, And
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  Speaker 2: so taking it to the next level and really focusing
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: on that problem. Sometimes that's difficult to understand that root problem.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And then once you do understand the problem, it's then
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  Speaker 2: to assess the impact. And I think that's a key
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  Speaker 2: point here because the impact is what you can quantifiably address,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: and it's the rational part of the brain for the prospect.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: You know, the pain, the problem. Those are the subconscious
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  Speaker 2: emotional responses that they're having. I'm in pain here, I'm
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: feeling I'm feeling it. And what we're saying, and what
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: you're saying is don't dismiss the pain, acknowledge the pain.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Just don't stop there. Go on to the problem and
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: then as you address the problem, address the impacts as well.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Talk me through Wesleyan a little bit, how you coach
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: your clients. Do you first advise them to go into
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: the sequence of the pain and the problem and then
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: the impact or are you talking about doing these all
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: kind of in parallel. How do you actually coach your
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: clients to go through that process?
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  Speaker 3: So I and I really encourage them to not start
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: with the pain, because if they start with the pain,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: they get too tactical, too quick, and they end up
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: being ready to quote, and then the deal is done,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: then we're playing the price game, right, So I really
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: encourage them to start with the problems. So even when
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: we're opening up a discovery conversation, it's our responsibility as
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: business development professionals to understand that prospects, business environment, their
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: economic environment and asking them a question that's going to
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: draw out that problem knowledge. Right, So you can start
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: it in the way where you say something along the
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: lines of can you tell me a little bit more
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: about the process of block? Can you walk me through
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: blow one, two, three, three? Right? And so what we're
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: doing is we're really trying to allow them to take
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: us along the journey in their business, and as they
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: take us along the journey, they're going to be like, yeah,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: and we do this, and sometimes it takes five minutes,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: sometimes they take twenty five minutes, depending on who does it,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: and then this happens. Then that happens because they're just
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: in flow. So you pull the problem knowledge and then
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: you flow into the impact knowledge and find the pain
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: because we fix pain. So remember our products, our services
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: fixes pain. That's the very last thing. If we start there,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: we go too deep, too click, So we go wide
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: over arching. Then we go into our impacts and then
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  Speaker 3: we say here's the pain. Ah okay, I got the pain,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: and this is how I can help you. And that
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: connects back to the problem.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Oh right, great. I love how you clarified that, and
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I love the sequencing too. Is focus on that problem
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: set first with with those questions that are the open
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: ended questions to allow them to tell you what the
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: problem set is. Then go on to understanding the impacts,
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  Speaker 2: those quantifiable impacts. How much money is that costing you
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: every year? How much time out of the process or
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: broken processes For customers with customer experience issues, maybe your
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: KPIs are being negatively impacted and then finally conclude with
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: the pain. The pain they get pain as emotional. They
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: understand that and don't lead with lead with the problem. Okay, great,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: now let's move on to key takeaway number three.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, the last takeaway that I would really like to
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: talk about is this phenomenon that I see often and
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: so it kind of pulls from where we're going talking
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: about the problems, the pains, the impacts, and it's diagnosing
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: without real discovery and what we do. What I often
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: find is people are doing demos way too quick. So
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: I have a rule, we don't do discovery and demos
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: or discovery and proposals in the same meeting. You should
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: have at least two meetings, right, especially as business development professionals,
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: we have to have at least two meetings. Sometimes we're
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: having twenty meetings in between. But what happens if I
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: sit down and I have a discovery call and halfway
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: through I start pitching. What I'm doing is I'm showing
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: the prospect that I'm actually not truly listening to them
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: because everything that they're saying, I'm getting ready to respond
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: with the pitch. So we're not able to actually extract
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: all that problem knowledge, all the impact knowledge, all the
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: pain knowledge, and come up with a customized proposal or
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: customize the demo. And when we allow ourselves that time,
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: when we say, okay, I have all of this information,
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: what is most important for them to see? And then
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: you present the proposal or you make sure that demo
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: is aligned specifically for their needs. So if I talk
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: about demo specifically, I think about our iPhone. Right, there's
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: a compass on the iPhone. I don't go camping. If
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: I go into the Apple Store and they're like, let
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: me show you this really cool compass. It does all
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: the things. I'm gonna be like, I don't care. I
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: don't need that, right, And that's what happens so often
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: in a demo, let me show you this really cool thing,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: and the person's like, I don't care. How much does
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: this cost? Oh, this is a waste of my time
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: and money. So when we go into our demos and
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: we go into our proposals, I say, connect the problem
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: knowledge to the feature or the pain to the feature,
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: and only talk about five things max. And that's how
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: you increase your close rights. When you're going from those
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: discovery calls to closing.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love this. I love this concept that you
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: need that strategic pause in the prospect engagement sequence to
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: first of all assess the pain, the problem, the impact,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and then when you do your demo or when you
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: submit your proposal, you are addressing those specific problem sets.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: You're speaking their language. How do you when you have
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: your clients and they're in this situation, either they have
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: a demo or they have a proposal that they plan
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: to submit, and you say, don't address more than five things.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of the rule of three. I
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: think neuroscience has shown that the humans can't keep more
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: than three or five things in their brain at once.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: It just becomes overload. I'm certainly in that bucket. I
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: max out at three things at once. That's why I
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: only ask our authors three things, their three takeaways. So
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: do you coach your clients to prioritize them somehow? How
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: do you how do you get them ready for that demo?
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: So the key part is what they got out of discovery?
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to ask them, what were the top
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: three problems that you pulled from discovery? What were the
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: top three things that they said over and over and
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: over again. What are the recurring themes, what do they
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: harp on? And we pull those out. Then after we
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: pull those out, I'm like, okay, now what three features
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: do we need to connect to that? Okay, so I
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: understand that you can do this really cool thing and
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: it takes twenty five steps to get to this really
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: cool thing. We don't need to see the twenty five steps.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: I just need to see the thing, just the thing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: So again, I come from a background as a chemist.
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: I sold capital equipment. So I come from demonstrating instrumentation
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: and having plant trials and doing things on that stay
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: at scale. And so one of the biggest issues I
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: see when we're doing like these very complex sales is
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: it is complex. Your prospects don't need to see all
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: the setup. It needs to look easy. It needs to
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: be like, oh I just have to post this button,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Oh great, and I get this output. That's all they
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: need to see in the sales process. Now, when they're
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: on board, that's a completely different thing. And so really
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: shifting the dynamic and helping them understand what are the problems. Okay,
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: now what solves those problems? That's it. That's all they
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: need to see.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, help them solve their problems. Don't show them the compass,
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: show them the solution to what they need, and do
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: it in a way that is in simple language, simple processes.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: I think with the example that you gave, you're not
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: necessarily trying to advise your client clients to show something
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: that is easier, probably than it is. Which you're trying
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: to show them is once the prospect becomes a client,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: they are important, they are trained. It will be that
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: easy for them to solve their problem, just as easy
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: as it is for you to do the demonstration. But
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: you don't have to show them every step or configuration.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: You may also just lose their attention. People just want
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: to get to how did you solve my problem? Great?
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: And I also like how you say focus on those
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: top three things. I'm sure you also advise your clients
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: to make sure they're prepared to answer all the other
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: problem sets, but to focus on those top three. Be
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: ready for them to say, Okay, I see the top three.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: I love the top three, but what about this number ten?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Oh okay, we'll show you number ten. Right. You always
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: want to be prepared for those Is that what you're
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: coaching your clients to do?
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? And you know I so I say no more
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: than five. I usually say three to five, right, So
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: five is the maximum? The maximum?
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: But you're right. In your discovery call, you might pull
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: out twenty different things that they say are problems, and
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: it's your job to say, I heard all of these things.
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: What are your top priorities? Have them say okay, one, two, three,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: four or five. Those my top five priorities. So even
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: if you're in the demo and they say, well, what
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: about this thing that's number twenty, you say, yes, we
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: can address that. However, I want to remind you that
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: these are your top priorities. Did I address those top priorities?
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: Like we're handling our objections in the demo because you know,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: sometimes our prospects they get excited, they get shiny objects syndrome,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: and they want to see all the things. But as
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: you mentioned, we overwhelm them. And if we overwhelm them
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: and lose their focus, then they'll leave the demo. They'll
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: be like, I don't know if that really solved what
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: I need. I feel a little little confused. So a
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: thing that I say is like, you're in control of
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: the sales situation. The prospect is not in control. You
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: must drive this ship. You have to steer it the
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: right way. So again, yes, address the things, but also
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: bring them back to where they sat is most important.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I love it. I love it, and folks, we're going
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: to demonstrate here. I'm going to review the top three
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: things that we talked about with this wonderful book from
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: west Lean Whittaker. It's the Sales Reset Forget the scripts,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: Trust yourself win consistently. It's available on Amazon Weslean. I'm
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: going to summarize the top three takeaways. First of all,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Number one is start with the pain. That's your pain,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: your pain you feel as the prospector, as the business developer.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: When you pick up that bone and you get that rejection,
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: that pain has to be dealt with. You can deal
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: with it by reading this book. You can also deal
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: with it as you advise. Start in the morning, Start
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: when you're fresh, when your energy level is high, your
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: resiliency is high, and then when you're past that hurdle,
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: then move on to key takeaway. Number two is when
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: you engage with your prospect, address the pain that they have,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: address the problem and address the impacts. And the sequence
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: for doing that should be the problems first, then the impacts,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: and finally conclude with the pains and then concluding with
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: key takeaway. Number three is when you give them your solution,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: whether it's a demo, whether it's a proposal, focus on
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: those top three pain points. That's what's at the top
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: of their list. Focus on those. Be prepared for others
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: to go into deeper detail. But when you're doing the
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: demo or when you're presenting your proposal has to be simple.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Language has to show them that this is an easy
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: takeaway for them to understand. Wes Lean, you know that
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: your belief selling system. I'm a believer. I love your
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: top three takeaways. Folks. If you want to learn, learn
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: a lot more packed into wes Lean's new book again,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: it's The Sales Reset available on Amazon. Forget the scripts,
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: trust yourself and win consistently. Weslean. How can folks connect
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: with you and follow your work?
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: The best go to connect with me is on LinkedIn.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: I'm there just as wes Lane, and I post sales
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: content every single day.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: All right, well, I look forward to seeing a lot
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: of your content moving forward. It's been such a joy
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: having you on the show. Weslean. Thank you for everything
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: that you do for the business development profession.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thank you for listening to the
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Business Development Podcast. Join our free community of corporate partners
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: and business development professionals advancing the art, science, and ethics
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of the business development profession at GBD Association dot org.