What does it mean for a client to say “I Don’t Know”?

One of the most frequent questions I hear is how to decide if a business opportunity is real or not. When I cover this, I give the audience several helpful questions they can ask to determine if this opportunity is one they should pursue. After all, fact-finding during the discovery phase is a critical element of uncovering the truth.

Once professionals start asking these insightful questions, they often ask me, “What if when I ask what they would measure for success or what happens if they don't solve their issue, they answer, ‘I don’t know?’” 

“I don’t know,” can mean several different things, and your job is to get to the underlying truth.

Remember, effective selling isn’t about persuasion or coercion. It’s about getting to the truth as quickly as possible.

What does it mean for a client to say I Don't Know?

Here are three possible scenarios that could be the root of your client or prospect saying, "I don’t know"

They don’t want to tell you

If you don’t yet have your client’s trust, they may feel that you’ll use the information they share with you against them.

In commercial insurance, for example, clients often don't want to share their current premiums because they don't want you to know what they are currently spending. Another place is in construction: "Why would I tell you my budget? Just tell me what it will cost." If the client doesn't trust the vendor, they won’t want to share their budget. This is often for fear that the contractor will assume the budget to be a green light to spend that amount, even if it isn’t necessary. Or, that they'll use that information to form the basis for their own proposal. 

If you sense that behind your client’s “I don’t know,” is really a reluctance to tell you the answer, then you should take responsibility for their discomfort. 

You may say something like, “I sense that I may have made you uncomfortable. What can I do to gain your trust so we can have an open discussion? We want to get a sense of your current situation." There is usually a reason that is in the client's best interest that you can raise to illustrate why they might want to share the details. If you don't have trust, then your problem goes much deeper than just the information.

Without your client’s trust, you could be stalled forever.

They don’t know what options are available

Let’s say you are trying to uncover their situation to uncover the impact associated with not solving their problem or the results they'd expect to see to measure success.

If they say they don’t know, it’s possible this is because they don’t have enough experience or context to answer the question. In this case, it can be helpful to ask your client questions that can lead them to the answer. 

Rather than just asking open-ended questions without context, you might provide third-party examples of how others measure these items: "Our clients often use one of three different measurements for success." Then you describe each one and ask, "Which one is most similar to your situation?"

The goal is to have a discussion that lets the client see the possibilities and allows you to seek the truth.

They really don’t know

If, after establishing trust and asking helpful questions, your client’s answer is still “I don’t know,” then it’s probably time to try to find someone else who might have the answers. What I mean is that if the person you are speaking with doesn't have any answers, then they might not be the right person.

It’s important to remember that the way you ask about speaking to another person is crucial! If you ask in the wrong way you can do damage to your relationship with your client. 

One way to do this would be to say, “I’m sorry for asking all these questions. I’m just trying to determine if there is a valid case for considering moving forward. Who else might have the answers to these questions? What would be the best way for us to include them in the conversation in a way that is comfortable for you?” 

It’s so important to include the person in front of you in the process of finding another person to speak with, rather than trying to go around them. 

Uncovering the truth

No matter what the reason is that someone says, “I don’t know,” finding the truth behind the answer helps both you and your client. 

By asking simple and considerate questions you can determine if this opportunity is the right one for both parties, and build trust by staying on the same side of the table.

Share Your Story

Have you had experience with someone saying, “I don’t know,” when they really meant something different? How did you handle this situation?

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Selling in 2021

Over the last year, our lives have changed in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The Coronavirus Pandemic has affected us in nearly every aspect of our lives -including our businesses and the way we sell products and services. 
Networking events, conferences, in-person meetings, and other ways of attracting customers aren’t available anymore. This means that some of the knowledge, methods, and even some of the characteristics we used to associate with top-performing salespeople have also changed.

The bottom line is: the way we used to do things probably isn’t working anymore.

So, how do we change with the times, stand out, and train our team for this new environment?

The Ultimate Guide to B2B Selling

How to stand out in a virtual market?

One of the most important things we can understand in sales is how we earn attention, especially in a crowded virtual world. 

Attention has become an even more priceless commodity as people have begun working from home and maybe distracted by new concerns and routines. 

In my decades of B2B selling experience, I have found that the best way to stand out in the market is to use the Same Side Selling Quadrants. 

Same Side Selling Quadrants:

If you’re finding your sales stalling these days, it’s time to use these quadrants to modernize for success, whether in-person or virtually.

Issue:

The best way to attract the attention of clients is to focus on the problems you solve, not what you do! 
This means that your sales team needs to have a clear understanding of what problems your product or service solves,  and what type of client is likely to have those problems. 

When our team has this understanding, we will spend our time effectively seeking out clients who have the type of problems we are good at solving, rather than wasting time on people who aren’t going to benefit.

In this quadrant, your sales team and your potential client need to be able to answer the question: What problem(s) does this solve and why do we need it?

Impact:

Next, we need to be able to articulate the impact our product or service will have on our clients.

During this step we want to remember, our job is not to persuade or coerce the client into buying from us. Our job is to get to the truth as quickly as possible. 

We do this by asking the right questions to help the buyer can convince you, and in turn, themselves, that their problem is worth solving  I like to use a medical example to illustrate this point. If a doctor walked up to you and said, “I’ve got an opening for tennis elbow surgery next Tuesday at 10,” you wouldn’t just schedule yourself for the appointment immediately. 

An effective doctor would describe the symptoms of tennis elbow, ask you if you were experiencing any of them, and then explain the consequences of not treating it. 

If it turned out that you were experiencing those same symptoms, you’d probably be very interested in scheduling that appointment.

The same holds true in B2B selling. If your client isn’t convinced that the problem you are good at solving is one that their business has, or that is important to fix the problem, they probably won’t be very interested in engaging with you.

The question now becomes, how do we do this?

A successful salesperson will always ask more questions than give answers. They are seeking to discover more about the client’s situation and see if they can help. 

Some good questions to ask at this stage are:

Questions like these will help make clear to your client the impact of buying what you are selling.

Results:

Next, we want to find out what results or outcome the client is hoping for. This is where we distinguish ourselves from the competition.

If the client doesn’t understand the difference between what you do, and what the other guys do, it’s not your client’s fault, it’s yours! Helping your client to differentiate between you and the other potential sellers can be achieved using the Client Vision Pyramid. 

Client Vision Pyramid

You know that you offer a premium solution, but your potential customer probably doesn’t know the difference yet.  You can help your client by establishing your relative position right from the beginning. 

Clients are usually looking for a relationship at one of these three levels:

Once you’ve established the three different levels, you can ask your client, “Which level are you looking for?’  
Start by telling your client the attributes you have that clients truly value. Then, describe the entry and effective level players. Make sure each level sounds attractive in its own right.

When you can clearly show your client the three levels, they will be able to see the unique value you provide and be able to more easily put the competitors in the other categories on their own. 

Once our client is interested in participating with us at the “effective level”, we need to discuss how they measure success. 

For a seller, the finish line is often the sale, but for the client, the finish line is the results or outcome of the good or service they bought. 

We can find out what our client hopes to gain from our product or service by asking questions like:

By establishing the expected results from the beginning, we set up our partnership for success, and build trust with our client that we will deliver what we have promised. 

Others Involved:

The last step in standing out in the crowded marketplace is making sure we have all the right stakeholders involved from the beginning. 

We must ask about this tactfully, so we don’t damage our relationship with our client. 

This can sound like:

The people who are in the answers to these questions are the people that need to be involved. Once we have determined who these people are, we can ask our client something like, “What would be the best way to get these people involved in this decision that would be most comfortable for you?”

Use the Quadrants, Stand Out, and Sell

Using the Same Side Selling Quadrants allows us to have an open and honest conversation with our potential clients. We will get to the truth quickly and capture their attention. 

Most of all, we will differentiate ourselves from others by focusing on the problems we solve, rather than coercion or persuasion.  We will be different because we are here to solve, not to sell.

If you want more information about the Same Side Selling Quadrants, check out Same Side Selling Academy. 
When you join, you’ll receive access to the Same Side Selling CORE Lessons to help you understand and master the principles of Same Side Selling. You’ll also have access to PDF worksheets for each CORE lesson to reinforce and apply the concepts you learn, along with many other valuable video and written resources to help you dive even deeper into these tools. Visit the website now to learn more!

Mentoring and Coaching with a remote salesforce

Mentoring and coaching your sales team - whether remote or in-person - is similar to the approach you’d want to take with any adult.

Nobody wants to feel micromanaged, so the best way to set yourself up for success is to create a process that allows you to check in and provide mentoring or correction as needed. 

Developing a framework for success

The first thing we want to develop is a framework for our team so that they know what to do, how to do it, and when to ask for help. 

There are three important pieces to this framework:

  1. Have a defined method or process for your sales team to follow. This makes sure that tasks don’t fall through the cracks, and that all clients are being handled similarly, regardless of which member of your team they are working with.
  2. Have a playbook that explains how to deal with situations that come up repeatedly with clients. Certain situations come up over and over in sales. Having a playbook makes sure that your sales team is handling these effectively each time, and doesn’t have to waste energy or resources trying to improvise solutions that already exist. 
  3. Make sure each member of your team has the opportunity to participate in role-playing exercises. This allows them to get guidance from you on necessary changes or improvements and stops them from experimenting with your clients. 

When you have this framework in place, there won’t be much value in asking about individual activities, but you’ll be able to measure accomplishments.

Set your sales team up for success

One mistake I see, when it comes to managing salespeople, is that we only begin to intervene when someone is underperforming. By then it’s often too late to do much about it. 

Instead of waiting for this to happen, we want to co-build a plan together before they even start selling. 
If their goal is to sell two million dollars a year, we should ask them how they plan to achieve that goal and set up a plan for success together. We might discuss how they plan to break up their goal, what industries they should be focused on, or what additional training or resources they need to achieve success. 

The best way to reach people - whether in person or remotely - is to ask questions!

Checking in

After we have the framework and a plan in place, our management just becomes a matter of checking in with our sales team. We can find out how the plan we built together is going, what in their path has changed that could affect their success, and how we can help support them.

By following this management method we don’t spend our time telling people what not to do, or trying to course-correct someone when it’s too late. 

Instead, we take the time to set them up for positive results by creating a plan with them to deliver the outcome we want. When we manage and mentor our sales team in this way we all get to experience the feeling of success.

Qualification: How is it different in 2021

Many salespeople are used to qualifying clients using the acronym, B.A.N.T.  They were taught to ask people what their budget was, who had the authority to make a buying decision, what the need was, and how time-sensitive it was. 

This is an old-school way of qualifying that isn’t relevant anymore. Instead, we want to focus on qualification using the Same Side Selling Quadrants:

For example, if you live somewhere cold, and in the middle of the winter a client’s furnace goes out it doesn’t make sense to ask them if they’ve budgeted for a new furnace. They are going to need to purchase that furnace whether it was part of their budget.

If you chose not to engage with a client who can benefit from your product or service just because they said they haven’t budgeted for it, you’d be missing many opportunities.

When we instead use the Same Side Quadrants, we help build mutual understanding about what the client is trying to solve… if it is worth solving, and what results they would need to see for success. 

We take notes by splitting a blank page into four quadrants. In the upper left, we take notes about the ISSUE (What are they trying to resolve). In the upper right, we take notes about the IMPACT and IMPORTANCE (What happens if they don’t solve the issue. And, how important is a solution compared to what’s on their plate).  In the lower-left take notes about RESULTS (what can we measure for success). In the lower right, we take notes about OTHERS INVOLVED (who else should we include). 

This structure gives you a quick read about which opportunities are real, and which ones are not.
If you want to get to the truth quickly, B.A.N.T. is out. Modernize your approach with the Same Side Quadrants. 

Preparing team members for successful virtual sales calls with prospects - How should your team adjust to virtual vs. in-person client meetings?

When sales were done mostly in-person, a salesperson who had a lot of charisma or personality could still get pretty far, even without some of the foundational skills. 

Most of us feel compelled to be polite when someone is standing in front of us, whether we are interested in their offer or not. But now, with virtual selling, people aren’t as concerned about appearing rude and we are dealing with the anonymity that hiding behind a computer screen creates.

Charisma and personality are still helpful, but what matters most in a virtual environment is trust.

Top sellers build trust, not by being coercive, but by getting the truth as quickly as possible. They are masters at asking the right questions to help their clients determine if they have a problem worth solving. If so, then we’re just working together to see if the seller is a good fit to deliver the solution. Top performers are more focused on been seen as a subject matter expert, than as an order taker or a salesperson. 

They stand out because they don’t sell, they solve. 

How learning has evolved in the virtual world. Challenging the flipped-classroom model

Virtual learning has become commonplace in the last year. From children to adults, we’ve all had to adjust to learning in front of a computer instead of from an in-person teacher. While this can be difficult, there are some advantages too. 

In 2019, I would have told you that in-person, live training is the only way to learn. As an added service, in early 2020 (before the global pandemic), we launched the Same Side Selling Academy. Throughout 2020 (the Academy became pretty popular when folks were all remote), we started noticing that some members of a team would view a lesson once at 1.2 times the recorded speed.

Other team members would view the lesson 4 times in order to pass the quiz. This was a wake-up call. Our assumption in the past was that everyone was nodding their heads when the topic made sense. More likely, they were nodding their heads to make it appear that they understood the material - even if they didn’t. 

From that experience, we adapted the Same Side Selling Academy to allow learners to work at their own pace while keeping track of their progress and achievements. 

We also discovered that top-performing teams need three elements for success:  

  1. A consistent process to follow step-by-step with a common language
  2. A playbook of how to deal with specific, frequent client situations when they come up (such as… “We love your offering, but those other folks are cheaper.”)
  3. A way to practice and get coaching/mentoring in real-time. We built those elements into our platform. That doesn’t mean that other platforms can’t also be effective.  

Top performing athletes, musicians, and surgeons all practice regularly. Top-performing salespeople also benefit from regular practice. However, sales professionals often shared excuses about why they didn’t practice with each other. Practice didn’t seem real. It was the same routine repeatedly. It was boring. 

So, we built a playful tool called Same Side Improv where they can have fun while getting real experience. Once again, it isn’t the only solution for practice. It just happens to be fun and effective.  The platform allows for variability so that each time you use it your sales team will get to experience a new condition and learn how to best handle common situations that come up over and over in B2B sales.

Just because your team is remote, doesn’t mean that you couldn’t and shouldn’t develop their skills. In fact, with changing conditions, improving their approach is especially critical. Same Side Selling Academy is just one tool you can use to develop a team, even when in-person training is limited. You’ll discover an approach that everyone can embrace - especially your customers. Ultimately, find and embrace a system - even if it’s not this one.

Same Side Selling Academy Could Be Helpful

We're proud of the fact that the Same Side Selling Academy is ranked as one of the top 5 Sale Development Platforms globally. The key, however, is having a tool. And, since our platform isn't the right fit for everyone, we've highlighted some of the essential ingredients for success, regardless of which methodology you select.

The essential elements are 1) A common framework or language that everyone can follow complete with worksheets to put concepts into practice, related videos and podcasts, and outside experts in complementary topics; 2) A playbook of scenarios and what to do when those situations arise. For example, what do you do when your client seems interested and then mentions that another company has a cheaper solution? 3) An environment for regular role-play and mentoring live with expertise. This is possibly my favorite activity each month where I get to work through real-life scenarios with our members. With help from the core material, playbook, monthly live coaches call, and guidance from outside experts you’ll soon have all the skills you need to sell on the same side as your clients.  Any program that offers these components is worth a look.

When done properly, you’ll learn to reject the games and battles and instead replace them with a problem-solving mindset that will build trust with your clients. You’ll see an increase in your returns with these integrity-based methods.

If you want to master an approach to growing a business that everyone can embrace, especially you’re clients, you’re in the right place.

If you have questions, please contact us at info@samesidesellingacademy.com or visit our website here to learn more. 

The ultimate guide to b2b selling

The Biggest Mistakes in Pricing Professional Services

One of the things a lot of businesses struggle with is creating pricing that is both fair and attractive. This is particularly difficult when a business sells services - those intangible things. 

There are three main pricing models: Fixed-Fee Contracts, Time and Materials, and Time and Materials, Not to Exceed. Today I’ll talk about some of the pros and cons of each of these models. 

Fixed-Fee Contracts

A Fixed-Fee Contract is best when both parties agree on the results or outcomes. A fixed-fee project encourages and rewards innovation and timeliness on the part of the vendor. If they complete the project more quickly than expected they still get the full amount of money, while the client receives a faster than expected turnaround. Everyone wins!

One downside of fixed-fee pricing comes when you think of a time frame, task, or client in isolation. Doing so often leads to over-pricing to lower your risk, causing the price to become unreasonable. 
This can be avoided by following these rules:

Time and Materials

A Time and Materials Contract is best when there is uncertainty about the scope of the project or desired outcome can’t be easily defined. These kinds of projects carry a risk to both parties because the client is paying based on effort instead of results.
Whenever possible it is best to try to move to a Fixed-Fee Contract, but if that’s not possible make sure that the terms are clear to both parties before deciding on this model.

Time and Materials Not to Exceed (T&M NTE)

Often in contracting, I see vendors propose this kind of contract. T&M NTE means that you bill based on effort, but only up to a certain point. Once you hit that limit, you are no longer entitled to bill for additional time. This is different than a fixed-price model.

While a Fixed-Fee Contract rewards you for efficiency, with a T&M NTE allows you to bill for time up to the limit. So, if you work efficiently, then you only get to bill for the hours expended. However, there is a penalty if you go beyond the planned maximum effort. If you underestimate the effort required for the task or if the scope of the project changes but doesn't warrant an actual change of scope with the client, then every hour you go over begins to erode your profit. Because there is only a downside you should never agree to this model as a vendor. Proposing T&M NTE is a dangerous trap that pushes you into the vortex of evil.

As a client, you also should avoid T&M NTE. Many companies assume that the vendor should know what their maximum effort should be and that if they exceed it they can’t charge anymore. However, if the vendor ends up being upside down in a project usually it will affect the project in at least one of the following ways:

  1. They will only deliver the minimum amount possible.
  2. They will stop using high-value resources and try to only use low-value ones.
  3. They will make up the difference by underperforming on other projects.

If you are offered a T&M NTE that you think has a reasonable maximum value then ask for a Fixed-Price model instead. This way, your vendor at least has the opportunity to benefit from their efficiency.

Sell Results Not Resources

Ultimately, the key is to focus on results with your client or prospect. Your client likely doesn't care about your effort. Rather, they often are evaluating whether the investment is worth the potential result you can deliver. The closer you can get to fixed-fee pricing, the better you can shift the focus to results and avoid the commodity trap.

Share Your Story

How have you struggled with pricing? What models have you found to best for you and your business? 

How to develop and mentor your remote sales team

A question I get asked frequently is, “How do I manage and mentor my remote sales team?” First, recognize that managing your sales force is like managing any other adult. 

As someone with two college-age children, I know that while I’d love to constantly monitor them, all I can do is provide a framework where I check-in and provide some mentoring. I set a solid direction for their success, but I don’t manage every aspect of their lives.

That same principle applies to managing your sales team, whether remotely or in person. Just as my children would not enjoy me meddling in every aspect of their lives, your sales team wants to be treated with respect and allowed the freedom to make decisions.

Plus, you don’t want to be that kind of leader. So here’s what to do.

Developing a framework for success

The first thing we want to develop is a framework for our team so that they know what to do, how to do it, and when to ask for help. 

3 important pieces to this framework:

  1. Have a defined method or process for your sales team to follow. This makes sure that tasks don’t fall through the cracks, and that all clients are being handled similarly, regardless of which member of your team they are working with.
  2. Have a playbook that explains how to deal with situations that come up repeatedly with clients. There are certain situations that come up over and over in sales. Having a playbook makes sure that your sales team is handling these effectively each time, and doesn’t have to waste energy or resources trying to improvise solutions that already exist. 
  3. Make sure each member of your team has the opportunity to participate in role-playing exercises. This allows them to get guidance from you on necessary changes or improvements and stops them from experimenting on your clients. 

When you have this framework in place, there won’t be much value in asking about individual activities, but you’ll be able to measure accomplishments.

Set your remote sales team up for success

One mistake I see, when it comes to managing salespeople, is that we only begin to intervene when someone is underperforming. 

By then it’s often too late to do much about it. 

Instead of waiting for this to happen, we want to co-build a plan together before they even start selling. 
If their goal is to sell two million dollars a year, we should ask them how they plan to achieve that goal and set up a plan for success together.

We might discuss how they plan to break up their goal, what industries they should be focused on, or what additional training or resources they need to achieve success. 

The best way to reach people — whether in person or remotely — is to ask questions!

Checking in with your remote sales team

After we have the framework and a plan in place, our management really just becomes a matter of checking in with our sales team. We can find out how the plan we built together is going, what in their path has changed that could affect their success, and how we can help support them.

That way, we don’t spend our time telling people what not to do, or trying to course-correct someone when it’s too late. 

Instead, we take the time to set them up for positive results by creating a plan with them to deliver the outcome we want. When we manage and mentor our sales team in this way we all get to experience the feeling of success.
If you want to see how your team measures up, go take the assessment. You can also contact me there with any questions you have. 

How to Find — And Keep — an Irreplaceable Employee

Both employees and employers have an idea of what attributes make a great employee. Employers are always hoping to find that individual who is so good that they seem irreplaceable, while employees aim to be the person their team can’t live without.

At a meeting of CEOs, Michael Gottlieb, founding partner of Momentum Law Group asked the group, “What attributes would you use to describe your all-time favorite employees?” While some of the attributes on the list may be surprising, in the end, all the CEOs agreed that those were the traits they found in their most valuable employees. Here are a few that made the list. 

Leave the Drama at Home

The very top attribute was a lack of drama. These irreplaceable employees get their job done without complaining or gossiping. They don’t call attention to themselves by announcing how challenging their tasks are or that someone else didn’t complete their work. 

An employee who doesn’t create drama will perform their job to the best of their ability, without bringing up their professional or personal challenges. They will put the work first and let the results speak for themselves. 
They are less concerned with what everyone else on the team is doing and more concerned with performing at the top level. They aren’t overly bothered with perceived slights and don’t spend time holding grudges. 

According to Jeff Lesher, Principal at SHIFT, “Drama is selfish. The more selfless, low drama approach, typically, is a symptom of high commitment.” 
The less drama an employee brings, the more room there is for collaboration and results. That is the kind of person that everyone likes to work with. 

If you are finding a lot of drama in your organization it could point to a gap in your hiring practices according to Kathy Albarado, CEO of HelisosHR. She says that if your screening and interview process is thorough enough, you should be able to weed out those who may cause drama and spot the right people for your team. Kathy encourages employers to look for individuals who have the courage to take risks, the character to follow through, and the confidence to take feedback. 

Laser Focus

The next item on the list was operational focus. Irreplaceable employees don’t just come up with ideas or point out problems. Instead, they focus on the best way to accomplish the task. These employees know that action is better than talk. They get things done and achieve results.

With an eye on the goal, these irreplaceable employees are always pushing their projects towards completion and staying on task. They are undeterred by distractions and problems that could cause them to lose focus. They take responsibility for their work and prove their commitment every day with their actions. 

These individuals are dedicated to helping their clients achieve results as well, so they are great at building trust with the clients they work with. They don’t need to be reminded about deadlines or follow-through and keep the vision of what is important. Because of this, they become not only invaluable to their organization but also to the clients they serve.

Motivated and Confident

The next attributes on the list are confidence and internal motivation.
Irreplaceable employees don’t have to be told what to do. They know the goal and are self-motivated to continually move toward it. No matter what obstacle they face, nothing will stop them from meeting their goal.

These individuals are self-sufficient, but confident enough to ask for help when it is needed. They don’t make their pride more important than getting the job done the right way the first time.

Their greatest power is their ability to accept feedback. While some employees buckle under criticism, even when it is constructive, irreplaceable employees are confident enough to accept and internalize the feedback. They view constructive criticism as a chance to improve.

However, this power will be negated if the employee is in an environment where they are punished for taking risks or initiative. In this type of workplace, this individual will sit back until they are allowed to use their initiative - probably while looking for another job. 

Attributes over Skills

Barry Glassman is the CEO of Glassman Wealth Services, which has been named “Best Place to Work” in the Washington DC area more than five years in a row. 

When asked what attributes he most values in his employees, he named the following three:

  1. Solution-oriented mindset
  2. Adaptability
  3. The ability to receive feedback and collaborate with others

You can see how these are similar in theme to those listed by the CEO round table that Michael Gottlieb led. 

When a company or organization is a great place to work, it will naturally attract high-quality employees. If you feel like the people who work for you are not displaying many of these qualities, take a look at how your company rewards and mentors individuals and see if there is a way you can change the culture to create a place where irreplaceable employees want to work.

It’s also interesting to note that nobody listed educational background, certifications, or skills. While these are important for success, nobody said their all-time favorite employees had the best technical skills or ivy league degrees. 

This is not to say that someone who an advanced degree or excellent technical skill won’t also have these attributes. However, it does indicate that it’s important to look beyond the resume and into the more intangible things a person could bring to your company.

Regardless of their background, the best employees get stuff done with passion. They are result-oriented, adaptable in the face of challenges, and willingly receive feedback, while working well with others.

If you want to keep these irreplaceable employees working for you, be sure you are valuing and rewarding them for demonstrating these skills and attributes. If you’re not you can bet that before long they’ll be looking for another employer who is anxiously waiting to make them part of their team.

Another Data Point

Most hiring decisions are made based on review of a resume and interviews. Yet. when team members don’t work out, how often is the root cause something overlooked in the resume?  And, there are personality traits that you might not see in an interview - especially those performed virtually. 

According to Paradigm Personality’s CEO, Lisa Dunbar, “The right assessment tools go beyond putting people into categories. They can bring to light personality traits that will give you insight into individual motivation, how those individuals might interact with others, and how best to lead those folks. It’s often the missing link for hiring and retention.”

Share Your Story 

What attributes do you find in your favorite employees? What makes someone an irreplaceable employee in your organization?

How Selling Services Is Different Than Selling Products

Anyone who tells you that selling services is the same thing as selling a product, probably hasn’t sold services before.  When you’re selling a product you can rely on it’s features and benefits. However, when selling services there are other variables to take into consideration.

While keeping these differences in mind, here are some things you can do to make your service selling more successful.

First, it’s important to ask great questions. The way that your client will feel comfortable with you is not based on your capabilities, but rather how you understand their situation. 

I’ve done research with 10,000 executives from around the world on how they make decisions about what services they will engage in. It comes down to these key questions:

  1. What problem does this service solve?
  2. Why do we need it?
  3. What is the likely outcome or result?
  4. What have you tried in the past? 
  5. What’s worked and what hasn’t?

We have to help our clients by asking the right questions to discover the problem they are trying to solve, why they need to solve it, and what the likely outcome or result is if they engage you to help them solve their problem. 

By getting the answers to these questions, you will be sure to have a full understanding of what your client needs, and not suggest something they have already tried in the past.  We also want to make sure that we have the answers to these questions so we are clear on what outcome the client is looking for, or what success looks like to them.

If you don’t know, you may expend a lot of effort while not giving them what they were looking for. When this happens they will turn the blame on you and your business may suffer.

After we have engaged our client by asking brilliant questions, we need to clearly distinguish how what we do is different from what other people do. While I won’t go into detail here, we do this using The Client Vision Pyramid. 

We use The Client Vision Pyramid to define the three different levels of service that people might be looking for in the industry, and help them determine whether or not they want that top-level that we perform, compared to everyone else. 

Now the next time someone tries to tell you that selling services is the same as selling products, you’ll be ready to tell them to think again and explain how you know better.

If you have more questions, you can reach out to me here. 

How selling services is different from selling products

How to Find and Attract the Right Sales Talent Post Pandemic

Sales talent is essential for the growth of any business. With the changes introduced through a global pandemic, some organizations have struggled while others have thrived. Regardless, there will always be a need for top sales talent.

Ask yourself, how might your needs have changed over the past year? What do you need from your sales team that might be different than what you needed in the past?

Sales Attributes of the Past 

Many sales leaders rely on their gut instinct to find those salespeople who can drive revenue. You might think to yourself, “I just totally hit it off with this person! They were likable, personable, and really they can go drink for drink with me.” In the past, that might be the reason you hired them. 
However, those skills might not get you very far today. 

The charismatic, smooth-talking sales professionals used to be able to overcome many deficiencies. Their personalities compensated for a potential lack of preparation, process, and even professionalism. 
Not anymore.

Sales Attributes for the Present

Today’s top performers demonstrate empathy. They ask great questions. They follow a defined process that puts them on the same side and that helps them work collaboratively with their clients to make decisions together. 

Ironically, those same attributes were often the characteristics that proved to be most successful in the past, even if those weren’t the folks closing down the bar at the annual President’s Club retreat. Even though they weren't viewed as top salespeople from the outside, they were the ones closing deals and retaining clients. 

Their bosses or co-workers may have said,  “I don’t understand how Pat does it! I’ve never seen Pat as the stereotypical salesperson, but clients rave about how much they rely on Pat.”

The reason for a salesperson like Pat’s success is that he is seen as a subject matter expert.

A subject matter expert views their role as the go-to person on certain problems or subjects. They don’t believe that you should have to use persuasion to make a sale. Instead, they know that the most effective way to make a sale is to get to the truth about what the product or service can do to help the client as quickly as possible.   

Selling with integrity is very important to a salesperson who views themselves as a subject matter expert. They tend to gain the client’s trust because they feel that they are all on the same side and that they have their best interests in mind. 

When you’re trying to figure out how to solve an important issue, that’s what you as a client need. The stereotypical back-slapping salesperson might be the person to take you out for golf, drinks, and a boisterous evening, but Pat is the person you want when you have a real need.

In today’s new landscape, salespeople with the attributes of empathy, curiosity, knowledge, and integrity are getting the respect they deserve and becoming the go-to when a company is relying on someone to help clients and make sales. 

Questions to Find the Right Talent for Your Team

When hiring today here are some great questions to ask to help you uncover the right candidates: 

In the answer to each question, you’re listening for empathy and a sense of personal responsibility.

I want candidates that understand how things have changed and have internalized those issues. I want candidates who have used the pandemic to grow and adapt and not as an excuse to let deals fall through.

If they make excuses or blame others, rest assured this isn’t the last time you’ll hear a great excuse. 

For example, here are two potential responses to the question, “Tell me about a deal that you should have won, but you lost. What happened?”
One response could be, “Well we had a great deal. Then, when Covid hit, the deal died and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

The second answer to the same question might be, “We had a great deal and when Covid hit we lost their attention. We didn’t help them see that with the problems they were facing they really should have made our stuff a top priority. Instead, we lost the sale and the client struggled without our solution. We learned some better questions to ask in the future to shift the priority for clients like that.”

You can see the difference between these two salespeople. One places the blame on outside circumstances, which can be easy to do with a global pandemic. But, it demonstrates this person’s lack of personal responsibility. You can bet that they will continue to blame circumstances or other people when sales fall through in the future.

The second person has learned from the experiences that they went through during the pandemic, and has made a plan to improve going forward. They will continue to grow and find ways to help their clients regardless of what is going on in the world.

Hire the second one and pass on the first one. 

If you want to find out more about how to get your sales team on the same side as your clients and grow your sales with integrity, check out Same Side Selling Academy. There you’ll discover the tools and resources to help you find success now and in the post-pandemic world.

Are you selling instead of solving?

Picture this. You walk into a store and the hyper-ambitious salesperson walks up to you and asks, "May I help you?"

What's your response going to be? For most of us, the response is something along the lines of "No thanks, just looking".

Why do we give that response?

Is it because we think that the salesperson doesn't know as much about the store as we do? What I find is that we respond that way because we feel that the seller is looking out for themself, not looking out for us, the customer.

In fact, what they tend to do is focus on everything from their own lens. Thus selling instead of solving. I often refer to this as a form of ADD, or Axis Displacement Disorder. This is when the individual believes the axis of the Earth has shifted, and now, somehow, the world revolves around them.

Let's talk about how not to come across this same way with your business.

Selling When We Should Be Solving

This happens in our business when we tend to focus on what it is that we are selling and overlook why people are buying.

So I want you to think of it as a medical metaphor. If you are a doctor and perform procedures related to carpal tunnel surgery, you can't just walk up to people and say to them: "We have the best carpal tunnel surgery. In fact, our treatment is incredible. We actually make it so that your recovery period is pain-free. It happens so quickly you won't even know that you had surgery just a couple weeks after the procedure."

Lead With the Solution

Most of the people you talk to aren't going to need carpal tunnel surgery. So if you lead with your treatment, in essence, the procedure that you perform, most of the people are going to think you're just a crackpot and you're crazy.

Instead, what would a good physician do? A good physician would think to themselves 'Hmm, let's see, I treat people who have carpal tunnel syndrome'.

They probably also realized that most people who have carpal tunnel syndrome don't even know they have it. So they're not aware of the condition that they have. However, they're aware of the symptoms that they would be experiencing.

So what are some of the symptoms that you might be experiencing if you had carpal tunnel syndrome? You might experience numbness in your fingers or have pain in your wrist or your hand. It might get worse under certain circumstances versus others.

Get to the Solution Early

Instead of going out into the community and telling people that you treat carpal tunnel syndrome, you want to get there earlier in the process. Let's face it, once somebody knows that they have carpal tunnel syndrome, what do they do?

They ask people and start looking for references. But early on in the process, if you're just having these symptoms and somebody helps diagnose that condition, that's the person you already trust. They got there early and identified a problem you were experiencing that you didn't even know you had.

What that means is that when we communicate with our potential clients, we need to be acutely aware of the problems that we solve or the symptoms they may be experiencing.

In your business, think about what symptoms you're really good at treating. By doing this, you can better communicate to clients the problems you solve instead of what you're selling. That way, all of your questions relate to what is it that your client or prospect is trying to solve that you're good at addressing.

Now, you might actually bring up things they hadn't even thought of. So let's say you were a digital marketing expert. Instead of saying that you're a digital marketing firm that does SEO and Facebook advertising, realize that people may not even know they need these services at first. This is why it's important to avoid focusing on selling over solving. Instead, you might say, "Companies come to us when their inferior competitors are getting more attention, and your own great solution is falling on deaf ears."

So next time, make sure that you're showing up not as somebody who's just there to sell something, but somebody who is there to solve something. The easiest way to do that is focus on the symptoms that you're good at treating rather than focusing on the treatment that you're trying to sell.

Feel free to take the Same Side Selling Academy Assessment to see how aligned your team is with same side selling.

selling over solving

Why B2B Clients Focus on Price

One recurring theme that keeps coming up in our Same Side Selling Academy's Coach’s Corner each month is why B2B clients focus on price so much.

Maybe you have a client where all they seem to care about is price. Let’s talk about why that happens. There are three distinct reasons that lead our clients or prospects (especially in the B2B space) to focus on price.

Who Usually Introduces Price as the Focus?

The first key reason why your B2B clients are often focused on price may sound a little disturbing because it probably doesn't happen intentionally. Many sellers often are the ones who bring up price. As a result, your clients then talk about it.

Maybe you’re thinking to yourself: ‘Well, I don’t think I’m bringing it up or focusing on price too much.'

What I want you to consider is that very often, when your client or prospect has an existing vendor, it’s common for the salesperson to reach out to them with questions in an effort to get them to switch.

When they reach out to them, they often inquire about who they’re working with. The seller thinks about why someone might switch vendors, and naturally asks, "How much are you paying today?" Let’s say you’re the salesperson inquiring information from a prospect. You lead a conversation by asking them about the price they're currently paying. Inadvertently, what you’ve just done is now convinced that the person that the most important thing is price. It’s the first thing you focused on in the conversation, right? So why should the client believe otherwise?

They were probably doing just perfectly fine. Then you reached out and immediately you're thinking the only reason they would possibly switch from who they’re using now to someone else is if we're less expensive. Because we started the conversation talking about price, it's perfectly natural for the customer to focus on price. So this is something to be very conscious of. It's often something that in most cases, the seller doesn't even realize that you're doing it.

Even if you or a rep starts comparing pricing and asking how you can save them some money, you’re convincing the client that it’s all about price.

What to Watch Out For

But it isn't all about price. In fact, most of the time when we buy things, it's not because of price. This is especially true when we're changing from one vendor to another. It's rarely about the price. We need to make sure that we're not the ones who are starting that whole price conversation with them.

You Get Stuck on Price vs. Results

When doing B2B sales, it’s also common to center your entire discussion around price instead of focusing on value and results. Maybe after a client asks about price you might carry on a whole conversation about it.

Of course, every client would love to pay less for the same thing. Still, we want to make sure that when we're having this dialogue with them, that we're not focused just on price. The way we pivot that is by focusing on what's more important to your client which is the results they’ll get.

What I want you to realize is that it's not necessarily something that is so hard to overcome. Think of it this way. How much less would someone have to pay for it to be a good deal but to not get the results they were after? For our B2B clients, results matter more than anything. We want to make sure that we first explain what prospects will get and why it’s important over-focusing primarily on price.

Talk about the results and how you can measure them together. This gives the client something to look forward to and be excited about other than a cheap price. Your goal should be to shift the conversation from price to results. Any time you get faced with price questions, your answer should be related to results.

The Strategy in Action

For example, let’s say you had laid out an 8-step process for your client. It was going to cost $50,000 and the client or prospect feels a little uneasy. It suddenly becomes the main focus of the conversation. Maybe they ask if you could drop your price to $40,000. Now, they’ve just shifted the entire conversation to price.

What you need to be able to say is: “Based on our understanding of the results you're looking to achieve, this is the process we go through. And that's $50,000. Have we overshot what we need in terms of results? Should we pare back some of this process for you? So that way, you're not spending as much? Is that a better solution for you?”

What this response does is give us a way to have a conversation that shifts from price to results.

Getting Seen as a Commodity

This is the third main reason why your B2B clients tend to get stuck on price. We spend a lot of time in the Same Side Selling Academy in our Coach's Corner talking about how to make sure you're not commoditized.

What will often happen is this. Your client or prospect may mention how someone else is charging half your price. If they perceive you're the same thing as the other vendor, they’re not going to want to pay twice as much.

So we need to help them understand how we're different. Of the things to recognize is that if your clients don’t know the difference between what you do and what a competitor does it’s not their fault. It’s yours and we need a way to fix that.

I recommend using something I refer to as the client vision pyramid. Here’s how it works. When someone expresses interest in whatever it is you have, you want to describe what it is that you offer at three different levels. The idea is that it's shaped like a pyramid.

Breaking Down the Client Vision Pyramid

People are looking for help. They're usually looking for help at one of three levels. That base level is what we call the effective level. This is where you know exactly what you need. You just want to consume some sort of content from someone that can help your team with those specific areas. As long as you know exactly what you need, that's fantastic.

The next level is the enhanced level. This is where you're dealing with an organization that already a proven method. As long as you fit into their model, it works great.

The highest level is the engaged level. This is where they take the time to understand exactly what you're trying to accomplish. Then, tailor a program or solution to meet those specific needs for your organization in a measurable way.

Which level you're looking for? By figuring this out, what we've done is we've now helped the client realize the difference between:

If we do it that way, we can help our clients understand how we're not a commodity.

Summary

Remember those three different areas of how people get trapped in prioritizing pricing from B2B  clients. Be sure to use the client vision pyramid to help make sure that you stand out over the competition. If you have additional questions, just post them in the comments below or on LinkedIn.

If there are other ideas that you think are worth sharing, share those in there as well.

Are You Pushing the Right Amount for Business Growth?

Are you pushing the right amount for your business growth? We've all been on the receiving end of people working really hard to try to grow their businesses. It's all with the best of intentions.

What often happens is we hear from people trying to sell us stuff who say things like:

Hey, I'd love to meet with you.

Can we schedule a time next Tuesday at 2 pm?

Can we schedule time tomorrow?

Is there time on your calendar today at 1 pm, because I want to talk to you about this amazing thing for your business?

However, doing this presents a challenge. The people we're reaching out to, and the people who are reaching out to us, don't yet know whether or not they have any need for what it is that we offer.

So one of the things that we have to think about is this notion once again of how hard are we pushing for business. There's a fine line with the balance between sitting back eating bonbons on the couch and calling people so often that it becomes offensive. So how can you tell if you're pushing the right amount of growth in your business?

People Need to Be Receptive to Your Message and Believe It's Helpful

Let's use a medical metaphor. If you're someone who's just pitching a treatment, recognize that very often your patient doesn't realize that they have a condition that requires that treatment.

If they don't realize that they have the condition, then all you are at that point is someone trying to sell snake oil. Let's face it. It would be like someone saying to you: "Oh, listen, we have the absolute best treatment for tennis elbow. And in fact, your insurance will cover completely, the recovery is really quick, we give you all the drugs you might want. It's phenomenal!"

The only problem is you're talking to people who don't necessarily believe that they have tennis elbow. You could be the world's foremost authority on tennis elbow.

Just from the way they type back to you in a message, you might be convinced that they do in fact, have tennis elbow. However, unless they believe they have tennis elbow, it just doesn't matter. This is something we need to recognize right away.

So How Do We Change That?

How do we make it so that people are receptive to our message? Well, if I was selling, tennis elbow treatment, what I wouldn't say is: "Oh, do you need tennis elbow treatment?"

Because anybody who believes they have tennis elbow, probably already has multiple alternatives to get treated. Instead, what I want to do is describe the symptoms that someone might be facing when they have tennis elbow.

I might want to explain the consequences of not treating that condition and what can happen long term. Then what happens is people say: "Oh, you know what, I think I have those same types of conditions. I think I have those same symptoms, which might mean that I have tennis elbow."

Then they now understand that they may need help with fixing this problem and that's where the business growth happens on your end.

When you reach out to an individual on, on LinkedIn, social media or any other medium, you want to communicate the specific types of problems you solve really well. You may say something like:

"Do you know of one or two people who might be facing those challenges, because we're really good at fixing those? I just don't know if your organization or other organizations are facing those problems. If you do have those challenges, I'd love to talk to you to see if we can help."

Sadly, only about half the people we talk to who are facing those challenges end up being people who are a good fit for how we approach things.

Practice Disarming

In the notion of same side selling, the idea is that we don't ever want to be seen as someone who's there to sell. We want to be someone who's there to solve.

That may sound like a subtle difference, but the idea is that always showing up to solve instead of sell is a pretty powerful model for business. If you had a doctor who identified a serious condition for you, that doctor would be someone that you would be waiting for them to prescribe the treatment for that condition.

But sadly, too often, we don't end up having that dialogue. So to determine whether you're pushing too much for business growth, look at it on a scale of 1 to 10.

One is we are entirely pushing trying to convince the client to buy our stuff. And 10 is our client is convincing us they have a problem worth solving. They are hopeful that we have a treatment for that problem. Ultimately, your goal is to be as close to 10 as possible.

Try to make sure that you almost never come across as the person on the other extreme. This is the type of person where you can tell they're trying to sell something and you instantly don't trust them.

Obtain Business Growth By Showing Up to Solve

The other day someone reached out to me on LinkedIn and said they'd love to talk to me about my services. We have a whole sales organization and we help people craft their message and reach out in a sales environment because we know that people like you are uncomfortable having sales conversations. You would think that once they saw 'same side selling', that they might conclude that I wouldn't be a good person to reach out to, but they don't care.

What do you think my impression is of their organization? If I had a client who needed their services, do you think I'd recommend them? Not a chance in the world.

Again, you have to determine whether you're showing up to see or to solve. Rest assured, if you show up as someone who is there to sell, you're usually not going to sell very well at all.

Test Your Strategy For Business Growth

If instead, you show up as someone who's there to solve, then you might actually have a better result of that. Now, how do you figure that out? Well, we actually developed an assessment and associated scorecard at SameSideSellingAcademy.com.

Just answer a series of questions and it gives you a scorecard performance back that says how well you are operating from the same side versus triggering an adversarial trap.

Of course, we're going to publish the results of this, this isn't a secret. It's not some kind of convoluted marketing scheme. It's just we want to know where people fall and then we'll be able to give people a perspective that can help everyone gauge where they're at.

It takes about 5 minutes max to complete this scorecard. I hope you'll join me there so feel free to make any comments below this post regarding your thoughts on pushing for business growth.

business growth same side selling academy