Questions & Impact
How better questions lead to more impact in the sales cycle and process
Hey friends - another Wednesday weekly!
Seems like just yesterday I was staying up well past my bedtime putting this together and yet here we are again! 😉
In this week’s edition of Stretch Weekly -
Charles Muhlbauer joins Nick and Armand with the roadmap for asking the RIGHT questions in discovery.
Chorus.ai presents a breakdown of the four most surprising sales cycle myths
And of course, once again, newly-improved (I think?) snippets that you can share with your team to make an immediate impact.
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
Asking the Right Questions to Break Down Your Disco Call
Two things: 1) I’ve shared plenty of 30 Min to President’s Club episodes with others as it’s one of the more relevant and actionable podcasts for sales leaders and reps alike today. 2) I’m also a huge Charles Muhlbauer fan (Humbling Disclaimer Episode HERE) as well, so this episode was a must-listen.
Want to close more? Get better at discovery. Too much to summarize here, but check out Charles’ 7-part roadmap for discovery.
Small Talk. Something relevant to their team. “I noticed you came out with X….”
Upfront Contract + Purpose of the Call. (ANOT = Appreciate, Naturally, Of-Course, Typically). Establish an agenda, goals, expectations for the call.
High-Level Context. (How much do you know? Permission to provide context on what we do? 25 seconds max) “What we do is very simple - we do XYZ…”
Clarify What/How. “Curious to understand how your team operates? “What do you do? How do you do it?” Clarifying questions etc.
Raising Problems Question. “We speak to a number of teams, this is what they tell me, these are the problems they have… curious to what extent that resonates/surprises you?” Have you tried to address that on your own? What happened? (WHY ARE YOU TALKING TO ME) Identify pain. Humbling Disclaimers for better impact questions.
Map the Pain to Solution. “Would it be helpful to give you some context on where we might be helpful here?” Tailor the pitch etc. Then…<<Pause>> “What questions do you have for me?
Confirm/Qualify Next Steps. “Assuming we can help…does it make sense to show how on another call?
Awesome insights for everyone to get better at discovery.
4 Common Sales Cycle Myths
Chorus.ai presents a breakdown of the four most surprising myths in the sales cycle. (Source: 2020 State of Conversational Intelligence, which is 🔥 )
Sales Myth #1: Hearing About Competitors is ALWAYS a Bad Sign.
As an example, competitors typically come up at least once per cold call and 5-6 times during Discovery Calls that turn into Closed Won deals.
Sales Myth #2: Shorter Calls Lead to Shorter Sales Cycles.
You can win more if you lengthen your discovery process by (4) days…Give reps time to do detail-oriented discovery. Signs indicate that it will pay off later on!
Sales Myth #3: Big Buyers are Less Concerned With Budgets
They’re often the most price sensitive. In fact enterprise buyers will bring up pricing 2-3 times on a cold call.
Sales Myth #4: Keep Discovery Calls Between the Rep and the POC
Closed Won deals often include reps and another colleague on the call early on - typically managers or Sales Engineers.
STRETCH SNIPPETS
🏁 Champions, coaches, and fans. John Barrows says as sales managers we need to define what a "champion" means for our organization. At a minimum, Champions can steal the budget and stand up and fight for the deal internally.
🧞♂️ Brandon Fluharty - VP, Strategic Accounts gives us 3 things he wished he knew as a young seller. 1) Tailor your sales approach to your personal strengths. 2) Don't be afraid to take calculated risks 3) Prioritize your health, especially sleep.
🔦 How do you write a good cold email? Josh Braun says it’s to illuminate the cost of inaction. Interview 5 customers that bought within the last 45 days and ask these questions...
🎉 Losing is winning? Todd Caponi asks us if our team celebrates when someone loses a deal? He says, if we celebrate the effort and lessons learned, we'll lose less often, forecast accuracy goes up and morale improves.
📊 Jake Dunlap says that most sellers never learn how to break down an annual report so they can get C-level meetings. Check out this quick 2 min video of him breaking how to tackle Home Depot's org to plan his attack.
🧠 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.
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