Backing Up Your Deals
Tips, and tangible tactics to continually improve as a sales leader and team - even if it means reversing course and backing things up
Hello friends -
Sometimes to go forward, you need to go backwards. What?
Stay with me.
In this week’s newsletter I focus on tips and tangible tactics to share with your team as you close out the year and gear up for a killer 2022 - even if that means taking a step back - to move forward.
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Rachel Clapp Miller joins John Kaplan to discuss “backing up your deals” - or redefining key elements of the deal before progressing it.
Revenue.io shares top 10 ways you’re accidentally ruining your sales calls.[infographic]
And don’t miss snippets from Richard Harris, Morgan Ingram, Jason Lemkin, and Will Barron on tips and tangible tactics to continually improve as a sales leader and team.
THANKS for reading!!
-Grant
And lastly - as always, if you find this newsletter valuable- subscribe or share it with someone who might as well 👊.
STRETCH SHARES
Backing Up Your Deals
Rarely has there been a podcast episode I’ve listened to more times than this one right here.
This short, 15 minute episode is packed full of amazing insight and actionable takeaways for any sales leader and rep to get better. Trust me on this. Bookmark and share with your team.
In this episode, Rachel Clapp Miller joins John Kaplan to discuss “backing up your deals” - or redefining key elements of the deal before progressing it.
John’s three most critical skills a sales rep needs to develop:
Attaching yourself to the biggest business issue.
Urgency issues? You likely don’t have alignment with the BIGGEST business issue facing the customer.
Back it up and ask the buyer about the impact when outcomes don’t go so well. Make sure this is not a feature or technical issue.
Connect to negative consequence of not having a great business outcome
Influencing the customer’s decision criteria with your differentiation.
What is your differentiation? (So what? What does it do for the customer? This is key)
Use “Trap setting” questions to trap the competition around your differentiation.
Tie these differentiating factors back to the required capabilities and metrics
Get from customer to acknowledge and agree this is a required, critical capability
Qualification (didn’t go into this much this episode, but this is the major premise of Force Management)
Top 10 Ways You’re Accidentally Ruining Your Sales Calls
I love a good infographic. Check out this one from Revenue.io with the top 10 ways you’re accidentally ruining your sales calls.
I had to take a long hard look at myself in the mirror (spoiler: guilty on a few of these here) so thought I’d share.
Top 10:
Not paying attention to your own body language. (Make eye contact -yes even on Zoom)
Talking for too long, especially about your product or service. (studies show talk/listen ratio should always favor the buyer)
Not asking the right questions. (What do you want to get out of the meeting?)
Not listening actively. (don’t think about the next question. Listen to their answer - then respond)
Not asking clarifying questions. (Don’t stop after the first initial answer. Dive in to understand!)
Using the wrong tone of voice. (Listen to your calls. How does your tone come across?)
Treating objections like a bad thing. (Objections are to be overcome - not speedbumps to derail the deal)
Speaking too quickly. (slow down. Ideal speed is 100-120 WPM)
Using filler words like “um” & “uh”.
Not using pattern interrupts. (change in natural habits to another state of mind)
STRETCH SNIPPETS
✅ Will Barron shares his simple 2 step process to close any sale.
1: Get your Mind right! Ask yourself "What is the next step you are aiming towards?" Then ask buyer - "Does it make sense to move forward with this?"
2. If answer to question 1 is no, then ask buyer "What do we need to do to move this forward?" (Listen to what the buyer tells you to do - then DO IT).
🔢 Sales is math! In this quick video, Morgan Ingram reminds us that sales is math! 2 personalized touches a day on a 10% conversion ratio compounds to 48 NEW meetings a year.
🔑 What qualities do great salespeople have? Jason Lemkin gives us 9 key qualities including: Preparation, product knowledge, mapping out stakeholders, efficient, and more…
👉 Chorus give us 6 tips to a more productive sales team. Including spending time with existing customers, requesting more referrals, templatize everything, vet prospects, work closer to marketing and standardize your toolset.
🧵 Richard Harris talks us through what we as leaders (and reps) should do when the EOQ/EOY fire-sale deals don't work out. Great thread and even better Q/A in the comment section from real life deals. Check it out!
🧠 Mindset
Thanks for reading!
My hope is if you find this valuable, consider sharing it with friends (or signing up if you haven’t already).
— Grant 👋
About stretch vp: confessions, learnings, and insights from sales leaders in SaaS
Compiled and aggregated from a network of sales leaders in SaaS, Stretch VP showcases learnings, insights, and experiences as well as best practices to overcome common hurdles, obstacles, and setbacks in your quest for excellence as a sales leader in SaaS.
Are you a VP, Director, thought leader, or content producer in the SaaS space? We’d love to have you contribute. Just reply to this email and I’ll be in touch.
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