Sales Leadership Accelerator - SaaS Sales Consultant, Keynote Speaker & Sales Leadership Coach - Black Hat Aficionado - #TFOMSL
Been taking a ton of demo's lately. It's tiring to be honest. There is a very very specific idea/problem/ strategy I'm trying to solve for. That will have MEASURABLE impact on my org and company. Let me walk ya'll through a 'buyers' process and also share some themes I'm seeing. 1. I do some research, google, G2, Pavilion, etc looking for tools that solve the problem I'm looking for. 2. Narrow down to 5-6 companies. 2-3 established, 2-3 up and comers. 3. Reach out - Almost 100% through connections, I reach out directly and ask them to have someone contact me. 4. Sit through 6 disco calls over the course of 1.5 weeks. (ALSO - I just knock out all the BANT/MEDDIC/SPICED stuff right away in the first 5-10 min of the call and then ask to see something if I can. Rarely get to see anything ) 5. Start sitting through 6 initial demos. At this point the first thing you need to know is my head is 'spinning' It is next to impossible to remember who was who, who does what, etc So standing out in your follow up is KEY here. Also - I'm telling all the companies who all I'm looking at. If you're being amazing here, you should only pitch the differences, not the similarities. There are certain things that are just table stakes. Here are some things that have happened in this process so far. -- I've had an AE no show one meeting, and be late to the next. -- I've had an AE talk down to and ignore a woman on my team on the call. -- I've had more than I thought start with a static deck (didn't know that was thing still) -- Some AE's lead the call, some SE's lead the call. Very interesting to watch that happen. (sellers it's your job to run the call, keep the narrative going, and the SE to dive deep in the product. You have to keep connecting the dots, you're not just there for the show) -- Half gave me pricing when I asked, the others tip toed around it. -- Some had clearly researched me, others asked me 'what my role was and how long I've been here' --- Ya'll, it's crazy out there. I def thought in todays market especially people would be doing all the things they could to stand out, land the deal, etc. Do the little things ya'll. Solve problems. Be HUMAN. Have some fun. But remember the buyers job is not to buy. I have 100 other things i'm trying to do right now as well, so if you aren't standing out in some way, you're going to get moved to the side. This is also why price becomes the major factor. If I think you're all pretty much the same, then price is the only lever left to pull...
Insightful perspective. We too rarely see the experience on the other side. Thanks for sharing. One thing confuses me though. If the product's complexity you are looking for warrants an SE to be involved, where and when did discovery take place? And by that I specifically do not mean qualification (BANT, etc). I'm not 100% sure if I agree on the "let the SE do the deep dive". Sounds like a demo jockey to me 😊 I know this wasn't the main point of your post, but I needed to step in for our profession 😉 For the first type of demo you were looking for, I'd argue the AE should be able to handle it. But that's a whole other discussion.
Fk demos! Do a pilot / POC, or give me death! 💀 ---I'm saying this from the solution side of delivering the pilot/POC experience, not the buyer side. Prospects/Buyers should either self-serve the demo/eval because the solution is so low-cost that you can't justify a "Value case." OR Do a Pilot/POC because a decent amount of $$$, people, and ROI are on the line. Am I wrong? If so, I'd love to learn from you re: how and why.
Part of me wonders what portion of these poor practices stems from prospect prioritization. Meaning, the rep does pre-call research on 80%+ of their prospects so they don't ask silly questions like role/tenure, but they don't for the ones with a low ICP fit. Not a great excuse of course, but I'm guessing it happens. Either way - the good news is it doesn't look like there will be a shortage of potential clients to book since poor sales process and execution still seems to be prevalent in SaaS.
This is epic. Kevin "KD" Dorsey - what are your thoughts on teasing some of those differentiators on the first or second touch point? I see mostly people trying to jam a ton of methodology fluff into a cycle before product is ever really discussed. As someone more from the SE side, what I've seen work so well is a quick PAS (pain-agitate-solution) approach. Uncover a problem, verify why it's important, and tease the solution for <5 minutes. Maybe do that a second time with another problem. That usually earns a deeper dive into other problems and the solutions that solve them. 80%+ of the time, I've seen that shorten the sales cycle (even when it's a no). That's always a win.
My immediate reaction 🤦♀️ And, yet - I'm not surprised. I saw a shift in how enterprise SaaS sales is done over the past 2-3 years. Unfortunately, what you experienced is not uncommon. IMHO - things are going in the wrong direction. As a SaaS seller, you've got to respect your buyer's time. It's precious + valuable. Do your homework, show up (be present), listen, engage, and have a point of view. Finally, stand out! As you noted "If you're being amazing here, you should only pitch the differences, not the similarities." If you're just like everyone else - guess what? You've already lost the deal.
What you trying to solve for KD? 5-6 different vendors seems overkill. Why not just look at the top 3? They’ve gotta be the top 3 for a reason.
After you tell them who you're evaluating: How many sellers asked you where you're at in your buying process/evaluation?
Great, your head is spinning....I am wondering if thats your fault for booking so many....or are they all that bad? you guys out here would do anything for clicks....but I am not surprised anymore, apparently everyone on linkedin is a guru, a keynote speaker, a coach.....lol
absolutely living for the buyer POV shared in this post. we don't control the product. we don't control the price. we don't control the overall company brand. the one thing we control? the sales experience. we have so much more influence than we realize. also - the talk down and ignore the woman thing is sadly still VERY common. thank you for calling out out.
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11moI've been having a blast running my calls at my current company. The autonomy they give me is incredibly refreshing. I'm right there with you- knock out BANT in the first 5-10 minutes, then, it's a crazy concept... Have them get hands-on with our hands-on learning! My success rate is phenomenal getting them to join the platform with a free account & then me giving them premium access on the backend. Get them to schedule a follow up call 1-2 weeks from then on the call so they have time to try after a guided tour. Other companies are shooting themselves in the foot by requiring their reps to stick to a manufactured sales cycle. Most buyers, once they come looking, are looking for NOW, not 4-12 weeks from now. Doing the qualification, discovery, demo, and scheduling a follow up on the initial call has made so many buyers thankful to be working with us. At my previous companies that'd be 3 separate calls spread over 2-3 weeks, and would include getting a signature from someone to initiate a pilot with a 2-3 day turnaround time and an additional kickoff call to start the pilot. Who has time for that?