Let's start the new year with a new series on Dominating SaaS Sales. The theme will be tweaks you can make to your sales process to improve results.
There are countless different ways to run a sales cycle. What we plan to do is arm you with powerful techniques that are tried and true, and hope you implement them.
Before we get started, we also want to plug our new website www.bowtieddingo.com - Take a look for some useful content and powerful offerings. There will also be surprises coming in the next few weeks.
Let's start at the beginning.
The first issue on sales tactics is going to be agenda setting. This is an important step because it is one of the few areas where you overtly control the sale. It sets a certain frame for the prospect to follow and can be a major factor in sale length, as well as if you get a contract signed or not (SDRs, if you're doing discovery calls, you need to be doing this as well).
I know what you're thinking, Dingo; that's so basic. Teach me something new. Basics close deals. You practice them every single day so you never forget. Plus, you might learn something new here. So let's get it.
What?
When we say set an agenda, there are a few different places people's minds usually go. These assumptions almost NEVER include everything important, so we're going to start by breaking down exactly what we mean.
A sales call agenda is one of the two bookends that set the scene of every call - the agenda and close. In it, we talk about logistics, our plan for the call, and our expectations of the prospect.
This is NOT just saying we're going to do a demo.
Why?
As mentioned, this takes the power of control back into your own hands - envoke power frame al la BowTiedSalesGuy & Oren Klaff. You can create an invisible box and social contract, which everyone is expected to fit between.
Then move on to prime your prospect for what is going to happen, starting to shift their mind away from pre-conceived expectations.
It's also a way to minimize unwanted surprises - we'll get into that momentarily.
When?
As soon as you're done with what is most likely mind-numbing small talk. But that's a topic for another post.
How?
This is the meat of it. This isn't just listing out everything you're going to do, or chatGPT will take your meetings for you. Is that what you want? To be replaced by AI?
First, start with a statement telling the prospect playtime is over. This doesn't need to be aggressive. It needs to change the mindset of who you're speaking with. "Let's jump into it." "Let's get started."
This is followed immediately with logistics - "We have 30 minutes booked out. Do you have a hard stop?" This is where a call starts to get fun.
Your goal here is just to get a time commitment, but often we get a few different responses.
"It's fine, we can go a little over" - Green light to move on, but DON'T go overtime. schedule another meeting if you need more time.
"I have a hard stop" - great, play the same game. "Good, so do I". You're at least equally as busy as the prospect, as a rule.
"It would be great if we could get this done a bit faster." You should ask why. Are they politely hurrying you? Do they not see enough value to sit for the full meeting? Or maybe they have a clash and are trying to get out of this. Or something completely unknown - ask them. If there is a reason to rush, say you're happy to schedule this for another time. Don't rush your call for them. At this point, the prospect will either agree to the full meeting or agree to a better time. No in-between here.
"Actually I only have X minutes" - this is my favourite. Oren Kalff in Pitch Anything has the only right way of dealing with this. "That's fine. I only have Y(<X) minutes". You need to return saying you have less time than they do. keep this up on repeat. If they say they have less again, do it again until the other person breaks. In this situation, do the short meeting. This is a power move. You need to win. Make it a fun game, do it with a smile.
After logistics, go into your plan for the call. This doesn't need to be rocket science. "In your email, you mentioned..., Previously you mentioned..., my SDR mentioned... that you want to talk about XYZ pain. Is there anything else?" *response from prospect* okay. What I'm going to do today is ask you a few questions to make sure your pain point is a fit for what we solve (Don't use those exact words, just that sentiment), possibly a demo of the product if it makes sense, and at the end of the call, we'll block out 5 minutes to discuss where we go from there. Okay?"
A few things are going on here - you're pace-setting, getting things going faster to put your prospect into the mindset of ticking boxes and moving forward. You're also opening up with your first open question to get some direction. You're also ensuring that you're on the same page about their current issue.
The question statement is because many prospects come into demos expecting a show rather than a two-way interaction, and this expectation needs to be broken Immediately if you want a signed contract. It's also very important to keep asking questions to continually qualify/disqualify - discovery isn't over until you've already been paid your commission.
possibly do a demo if it makes sense - don't demo time wasters or bad fits. Show yourself some respect.
and future pacing - we'll block out 5 minutes for the next steps. We've already got them thinking about outcomes.
That's it. Your full agenda/opening to a demo call.
Keep Dominating, and we'll see you next week.
-Dingo
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