Latest / Sales Leadership with Fexingo: Quota Carriers, Sales Managers, and Revenue Teams / How to Sell When the Prospect Wants an Off-the-Shelf Solution
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- Lucas: Let me start with a number. A mid-market SaaS company I know—let's call them CloudTransit—lost a five-hundred-thousand-dollar deal last quarter because the prospect's procurement team kept saying, 'We just need something standard.' Luna: Ouch. That phrase is like nails on a chalkboard for most sales reps. Lucas: Right. And the reps at CloudTransit did what a lot of reps do: they started defending their customization. They pulled out case studies showing how tailored their platform was. And every time they emphasized custom features, the prospect pushed back harder on price. Luna: So the more they leaned into their differentiator, the more the prospect treated them like a premium option they didn't need. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the trap. When someone says 'we need something standard,' they're usually not saying they dislike your product. They're saying they don't see a big enough gap between what you offer and what a generic tool does. Or they're worried about implementation risk. Luna: So how do you reframe the conversation without getting defensive? Lucas: There's a framework I've seen work really well. It's called 'Standard Plus One.' The idea is simple: you agree with the prospect that standard is the right baseline. Then you help them identify exactly one area where a standard solution will create a specific pain point that costs them money or time. Luna: So you're not fighting the 'standard' label. You're saying, 'Fine, let's start with standard and add one thing that matters.' Lucas: Yes. And you make that one thing concrete. For CloudTransit, the rep who eventually saved a different deal used this approach. The prospect was a logistics company. They said they needed a standard CRM. The rep said, 'Great. A standard CRM will handle your contacts and pipeline. But you told me your dispatchers spend four hours a week manually entering route data. What if we add one integration that pulls that data automatically?' Luna: And that one integration was the 'plus one' that made the deal feel worth the premium. Lucas: Exactly. The prospect went from 'we want standard' to 'we want standard plus that one integration.' And the price became secondary because the integration solved a measurable pain. The rep tied it to a dollar figure: four hours a week at forty dollars an hour is eight thousand dollars a quarter in wasted labor. Luna: That's the kind of math that changes the conversation. It's not about features; it's about a specific cost they're already paying. Lucas: And this works in enterprise too. I've seen reps use it with Fortune 500 procurement teams. The key is to resist the urge to list ten custom features. You pick one. And you make sure that one is a problem they've already acknowledged. Luna: What if the prospect says, 'Our current standard tool doesn't have that problem'? Then the 'plus one' falls flat. Lucas: That's a good point. If they don't feel the pain, you don't force it. But then you pivot to another angle. Maybe the pain is in reporting, or compliance, or onboarding time. You're looking for the one gap that a standard tool leaves open. And if they truly have no gaps—no pain—then maybe they really don't need your product. And that's okay. Luna: I like that honesty. Not every deal is winnable, and forcing a 'plus one' that doesn't land just damages trust. Lucas: Right. And that brings me to another mistake reps make. When a prospect says 'standard,' reps often assume the prospect is the decision-maker. But in many cases, the person saying 'we need standard' is a procurement manager whose job is to minimize risk. They're not the end user who feels the pain. Luna: So you need to get to the actual users before you can find the right 'plus one.' Lucas: Exactly. At CloudTransit, the successful rep asked the procurement manager, 'Who on your team will be using this most?' Then she set up a fifteen-minute call with two dispatchers. That's where she discovered the manual data entry pain. Procurement never would have surfaced that. Luna: So the framework is: agree on standard, find the user pain, pick one fix, and tie it to a dollar amount. Lucas: That's it. And I want to underline that the 'agree on standard' step is crucial. If you argue that your product isn't standard, you're positioning yourself as exotic and risky. But if you say, 'Yes, standard makes sense for most of what you do. Let's see if there's one thing that could save you money,' you become a partner. Luna: I've seen this work in my own experience too. A sales rep I used to work with sold HR software. Every prospect said, 'We have a standard payroll system.' He'd say, 'Great. How do you handle time-off requests?' Nine times out of ten, they were using spreadsheets. That was his 'plus one'—automated time-off tracking. Lucas: Perfect example. That's a pain almost every company has, but it's rarely top of mind until you ask. And once you surface it, the conversation shifts from 'why is your product expensive' to 'how fast can we get that time-off module installed.' Luna: So for our listeners, here's a practical takeaway. Next time a prospect says 'we need something standard,' pause. Don't pitch. Ask: 'What part of your current process creates the most manual work for your team?' Then listen for the gap. Lucas: And if they say 'nothing,' then you have a different conversation. But in my experience, every organization has at least one area where 'standard' means 'we tolerate something inefficient.' Luna: Before we wrap up, I want to mention something that ties into this idea of finding the real pain. A lot of listeners have told us that these conversations help them sharpen their approach in sales calls. Lucas: Yeah, we hear that a lot. And if this show helps you close even one deal differently, that's exactly why we keep it ad-free—no sponsors, no interruptions. It's supported entirely by listeners who find value in it. Luna: If you're one of those listeners, and you want to help keep the conversations going, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a simple way to say thanks. Lucas: And we really appreciate it. It lets us keep doing deep dives like this one. So, back to the 'Standard Plus One'—the real art is in picking the right 'one.' Luna: And making sure it's tied to a metric they care about. Revenue, time, compliance—something that shows up in their quarterly review. Lucas: Right. So if you're in a deal right now where the prospect is defaulting to 'standard,' try this framework. Agree, ask about manual work, find the one delta, and quantify it. You might be surprised how many deals you can reframe. Luna: And if you try it, let us know how it goes. We love hearing real stories from the field. Lucas: Absolutely. Until next time, keep the conversation honest.