B2B Tech Sales Meetup Your Sales Process Matters
Dec 16, 2014
B2B Tech Sales Meetup
Your Sales Process Matters
Here is what I hope you get out of
tonight:Something you can try tomorrow
-or-The beginning of a path towards improved sales
-or-Ideas about how to get your sales process going
-or-A little push to get started
-or-free food and drink
Process is boring, what it delivers is
not.
proc·ess1
ˈpräˌses,ˈpräsəs,ˈprō-/
noun
1. a series of actions or steps taken in order
to achieve a particular end.
“actions to achieve”
Inverted SaaSService as a Software
2-27-2013
Trust WOMTake care of those that take care of you.
Our Third Best Process
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt
Something is better than nothing
What do customers want?
People don’t care what you do.
People do care about what you can do for them.
Sell ideas, not stuff
Feature --> Benefit --> Idea
Feature
Benefit
“Track and save email communications in PipelineDeals immediately with no IT
hassles.”
Idea
What can we do for our customers?
What are the ideas they are looking to purchase?
Two key questions for designing our sales process:
Lead/Prospect/Opportunity
Deal
action: Qualify
action: Close
Customeraction: Retain
Our sales process
And this little button...
action: Qualify
Qualify the person
We collect a bunch of custom stuff like:1. Email address
2. Size (#fish)
Whale (> 150)
Tuna (50 - 149)
Salmon (15 - 49)
Trout (5 - 14)
Minnow (1 - 4)
3. Verify phone number (off Caller ID)
4. Time Zone (Custom Field - Drop Down)
5. First and Last Name
6. Company Name
7. Decision Maker - (Custom Field - Drop
Down)
8. Buying Decision Criteria (Activity)
9. Decision Time Frame (Custom Field - Drop Down)
10. How did you hear about us? (Source)
11. Medium (Custom Field - Drop Down)
12. Origin (Custom Field - Drop Down)
Synthetic
Organic
13. Contact Type = Lead
14. Jumpstart Interest? Yes or No
15. Set Follow for John up accordingly - do your best to establish a
next step.
16. Assign New Person to John.
Fish Size
Distance to shore: Decision
Time Frame
When to make a lead a deal?
When you have engagement
action: Close
Knowing vs. guessing
Things to knowProblems that customers say you solve*Messages that resonateRoles that respondTimes to callCompetitors that winPrices that closePresentation(s) that workYour sales cycleReasons deals stallNumber of contacts to conversionEmails that get a response
( Thanks to @douglandis for some examples))
Analyze both wins and losses
Track over time
Other nuggets of gold from Aaron Ross
Sales people should not prospect
Most are not good at it
Most don’t like to do it
It is not repeatable
Recommended Alternative:“Divide & Conquer”
Inbound Lead Qualification
Outbound Prospecting
Account Executives
Account Management/Customer Success
Source: Predictable Revenue, Aaron Ross
First then
Key Takeaways from Mr. Ross:
You MUST specialize your sales people
Use referral/researching approach as opposed to cold calling directly
Train outbound people to be “business people who can sell” as opposed to solely sales people
SIMPLIFY what you track in your CRM/SFA
Article: http://www.forentrepreneurs.com/predictable-revenue/
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt
“Give them the third best to go on with; the second best comes too
late, the best never comes.”
- Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt
My challenge to you:
Start tomorrow and build the third best sales
process you can imagine.
B2B Tech Sales Meetup
Your Sales Process Matters