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50: Think like a buyer - a letter from IT ops leader · Cyber Go-To-Market Talk: The Cybersecurity Podcast About Cyber Sales, Marketing & Revenue Growth

• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: What does a senior executive at your biggest target think about you and what do they want you to know?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: In this episode, we have a dear salesperson letter from a real senior executive, and it's taken from Keenan's book, Gap Selling.
• 0:54
  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.
• 1:09
  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.
• 1:15
  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.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get to the topic for today, this episode is sponsored by Sales Bluebird.
• 1:33
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• 1:51
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• 1:55
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• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is episode 50 of the podcast.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Know your buyer is a phrase that we hear a lot.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's so important that we're told, you know, and I bet you that every month, every quarter, someone's gonna tell you inside your organization it's so important to know your buyer, know the people you're interacting with, what they're all about.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I would guess that if you look at all the training you get from your company, about five to ten times as much training is and time is given to product training than to knowing your buyer training.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And it's one of these weird things where you know, if we think that you know, we think that if we just train the salespeople in products, they'll somehow magically you know know the buyers or whatever.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And often what I've seen is you get an hour-long product training, and five minutes of at the end will be, oh, and here's a little bit of why why buyer, who cares about this and and why, right?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder sometimes if it if it's the wrong way around.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Keenan in his book Gap Selling actually includes a real letter from a real senior executive that was written, it looks like, to a salesperson, and I find this enlightening.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna read it out to you so you can get a sense of it too.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So reading straight from the book, dear salesperson, I am the customer.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I have responsibility for IT operations for an$18 billion company with 30 million customers.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Do I bet on you?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do I take a chance?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am responsible for$100 million in OpEx budget and$100 million in CapEx budget.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I invest in your company and your product when I have many competing ways to spend company resources?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: I get dozens of cold calls every week.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: I consistently work 50 to 60 hours per week, and my schedule is book solid two weeks in advance.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I return your call, your meeting invite, or your email?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: What makes you better, faster, cheaper, safer, smarter than what I have today?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have 300 plus staff.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have the wherewithal to learn, understand, implement the product, and derive the value of what you are selling?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have a dozen vendors I spend three million dollars with or more each year.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know who they are and why I buy from them?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have many challenges, problems, issues.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what they are?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have a strategy and a three-year plan.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what it is?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Do you fit in?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have partners, vendors, and suppliers.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Which one are you aspiring to be?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: A partner shares risk.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: My upside is your upside.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: My downside is your downside.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to share in that?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: A vendor consistently sells me a product or service I need at a fair price and good value and is easy to do business with.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you one and done, or are you willing to be there for the long term?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: A supplier gives me a commodity when I have many choices.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Why should I buy from you on a regular basis?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Price?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Service?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Flexibility?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have an easy button?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: My company has a strategy, a place in the market, is looking to differentiate, and is striving to improve our position by increasing our lead or catching the competitor in front of us.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know my business?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: My competitors, my company's strategy.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: I buy from those I have a relationship with, those who have proven themselves over time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can count on them.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I can vouch for them.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Can I count on you?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that's read straight from the book.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, for me, it it's it's a great reminder of what these people care about and how oftentimes we get so sidetracked in our own world of products and what we do and things like that that we lose sight of these really important questions.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if this resonates with you, I would give yourself the action item is to look at your biggest target accounts right now, or the ones with the biggest deals in the pipe, and go down those list of questions and see how you rate.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Do you really know this information?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And do you know it or are you assuming you know it?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where you have to be very real with yourself.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do you actually know it?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Have they told you that, or are you thinking you know it?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's when you're really going to get real about this.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And how crisp are you on the biggest and clearest differentiators that you're you're giving these prospects versus what they have already?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know their strategy and their three-year plan and how you can fit into it?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: What are the biggest initiatives and problems that they're working on right now?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: How can you help solve them?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what will it take for them to be able to count on you?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So take that action item.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: If you have to get the book, it's gap selling from Keenan, and this is on page 159 or 160.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Go get the book, get through this list of questions, and challenge yourself to know the answers to these and be compelling around these every time you engage with your prospects.
• 7:10
  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.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It'll probably take you less than 20 seconds.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is click the share icon in your app right now and share it wide and far.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: It will mean the world to me and it could make a difference to those you share it with.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I need your suggestions, please.
• 7:33
  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.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's upside at unstoppable.do.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now to wrap up, training without implementation is just entertainment.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty poor entertainment when I deliver it.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure you take action on what you learn today and keep getting it better and better each and every day.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Also, this world does not need more sales BS.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So please don't create any more.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Be great at the fundamentals, be honest, be real, be yourself, just do not BS.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, I'm signing off as the great Joe Sexton would by saying gone to sell.