Sales Coach Justin

Sitting through meetings with vendors and partners all day today. It was interesting and enlightening to be on the other side of the table as someone being sold to vs the one doing the selling. I got to see through a different lense how different sales processes work and relationships are built.

The first meeting the sales rep started off talking about themselves and their quota and their numbers. They talked about what they need and the ways we can help them and the expectations they had of their team. Then we discussed why they are not getting the mindshare from our sales team and the momentum is lost.

The second meeting was the opposite- started by recapping past meetings and what they had committed to and where they were adding value. We discussed additional ways they can help, ideas they had to improve more using relevant examples and only then did we discuss things they still needed from us. It was night and day from the first meeting. These two meetings were with direct competitors and it is not surprise that meeting #2 is stealing marketshare and mindshare from meeting #1. Two very different approaches and two very different results.

This supports something I have been advocating for a while… as sales people we need to look through the lense of a customers needs when working with them. Whether we are cold calling, scheduling a business review or closing a multimillion dollar deal I have found great success in consistently answering the question “What’s in it for them?”

When I appropriately answer that I know I am bringing value and elevating above and beyond the competition. This is also a breath of fresh air for customers who probably have hundreds of our competitors trying to take that business.