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54: In B2B sales, why are prospects not ready to buy? · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: You just know that your prospects will be in a much better place with your solution, but they don't seem to care.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: What the heck is going on?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Einarino explains all in The Lost Art of Closing.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bite-sized sales podcast, where we believe that sales is the most important team in a B2B company, that the sales team deserves great sales training delivered online because it sucks spending days out of the field or off the phones.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And we believe that taking bite-sized steps each day to get better at your craft is the best way to improve your results.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, Andrew Monahan, and I'm using my 20 plus years in B2B sales to bring you simple, actionable ideas that you can use every day to help you get better.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the topic for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:30
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• 1:37
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• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up right now at salesbluebird.com.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to episode 54 of the Bite-sized sales podcast.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I look back on my career, I cannot even count how many times this has happened to me.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when you go into the account, you have a great conversation, you have a good discovery session with your prospect, and you find out that you know they're kind of hurting in some degree in the area that you can help them, and yet they're just not motivated in that moment to want to work at a project with you.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to allocate resources, they don't want to go any deeper.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And often it's uh it's a case that they give some excuse about why it's not important right now and you know could have to move you on a little bit.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this happens more often than not in a situation where you're actually going at creating opportunities for yourself as opposed to waiting for them to come to you.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: When when you get inbound, people are usually calling or are coming in by email for a reason that they've already found a need to want to interact with you.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're outbound and you're making these opportunities and creating them and getting the meetings, then you know you're asking someone who's already got a set plan to want to change that.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not easy, right?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when it used to happen to me, I would put it down to priorities.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I would say, you know, clearly they've got priorities somewhere else, and this isn't just a big priority for them right now.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe I wasn't strong enough to say, you know, let's try and bring it front and center right now, and I'd let it drift out a little bit.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you are in the same situation.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what I when I think back on it, what I was probably doing was not diving deep enough into the reasons why it's not a priority right now, what else is going on that is a higher priority.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I was probably guessing to a certain degree that there, you know, whatever the reasons were why they weren't going to move forward or take on this project.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I was maybe giving them too much of an easy out.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, thinking back to it, you know, my belief in my mind that there was other priorities was probably the root of letting all these other things happen.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting is that in The Lost Art of Closing, Anthony Aynorino's book, he actually talks about this and what's really going on to help us understand it.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: So let me read directly from the book.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge for most of us in sales is that we recognize our dream clients having a compelling reason to change long before they do.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: We developed the insights that have allowed us to create new products, new solutions, and new services designed to help our clients produce greater results in many cases before they have even recognized their need for these new capabilities.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can undoubtedly call to mind some dream clients you know would benefit from what you sell even though they resist your attempts to schedule a meeting.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can also describe the very reasons they should change now, as well as the economic, technological, scientific, and cultural changes that are going to force them to change eventually, whether they like it or not.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But still they cling to what they've been doing.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: The reality of sales is that most buyers don't feel compelled to change when you are prospecting, trying to obtain the commitment for time and the commitment to explore.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, they're experiencing a sort of dissonance, the feeling that something is off that isn't quite right.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Even though things aren't working exactly the way they need them to, they find ways to work around their challenges, becoming more frustrated at the effort it takes to get things done.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: You, as a consultative salesperson, need to understand the source of your dream client's dissonance to help them understand it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: It may be that the assumptions underlying the prospect's business model are no longer valid, but they don't yet fully understand this fact.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It might be that changes in the economic climate are producing changes for their clients, changes they haven't yet responded to.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It might be that scientific, technological, or cultural developments are making it harder for them to do what they once did easily, and they don't yet understand why.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: These changes are all part and parcel of living in a time of accelerating, disruptive change, and as painful as they may be, they provide opportunity for you and for your dream clients.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: When you understand the source of your prospective client's dissonance, you can help them develop it into a problem worth solving.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Helping them develop that dissonance into a problem we're solving is how you create value for your clients.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a trusted advisor and a consultative salesperson, you can't wait until your dream client experiences the negative impact of not changing before you decide to help them.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: You have to be helping them proactively, and that means helping them understand they need to change.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: To do this, you'll need to gain control of the process by getting the commitments that allow you to help them turn their dissonance into a problem worth solving into a compelling reason to change.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: To do this, you'll need to learn how to gain the commitment for time and the commitment to explore.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: These commitments allow you to control the process and better serve your prospective clients.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's read directly from The Lost Art of Closing by Anthony Aynorino.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, one of those books that's actually really powerful.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: The title of the book might make you think one thing about it, but it's really not if you're thinking negative, you know, you know, 55 ways to close a deal, it's not that in any shape or form.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually all about controlling the deal, moving things forward, and asking for these many commitments throughout what is often a lengthy sales cycle.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was reading that and thinking about this and what it would mean for me, is that I think I think two things spring to mind.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: One is the real need to dig deeper with your prospect.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: When they give you that initial reaction, how it's not a priority, is to really want to dig into deeper why they're saying that so you truly understand, but then ask them for the commitment to dig deeper into this area.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, saying to them things like, look, you know, not a priority right now, maybe, but this is a wave that's going to hit our industry over the next six months, one year, two years.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me work with you and your team to understand where things are right now and maybe put a plan together for if and when that happens.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe having that sort of approach might help you dig a bit deeper and get their commitment for time.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is the it does take time to do this, right?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is, you know, when you're at this point, this is not the short game you're playing, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: To change, move budget around, change projects, train priorities isn't often a quick thing to do for organizations, right?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's very few people are truly in that point of view where in that um realm of responsibility when they can quickly make that decision and change courses.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: So digging in for the the medium term and asking for the commitment to explore is where the success is going to come from.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really my action.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you if this really resonates with you and you think back and you you kind of get a sense that you do have a lot of meetings that kind of you know don't go get much further than the first one because of you know the prospect doesn't really get you know the big impact this might have, then be prepared to ask those questions, to ask for the commitment to explore and the commitment for time so that you can get in there and work something out over time with them.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the important thing is when you're doing that, if these are new questions for you, figure out what the right phraseology for you is that feels natural for you, and then practice asking those questions to gain that commitment going forward.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Don't practice in front of your prospect, practice in front of your friends and your colleagues.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you like this episode, the single most useful thing you could do to support this podcast is share it with your sales network.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It'll probably take you less than 20 seconds.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is click the share icon in your app right now and share it wide and far.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: It will mean the world to me and it can make a difference to those you share it with.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions, please.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: If you have a topic you want me to cover or just want to get in touch, simply email me at upside at unstoppable.do.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty poor entertainment when I deliver it.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you take action on what you learn today and keep getting it better and better each and every day.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Also, this world does not need more sales BS.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So please don't create any more.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Be great at the fundamentals, be honest, be real, be yourself, just do not BS.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm signing off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying gone to sell.