pushthepaceacademy

[pushthepaceacademy]

Prospect went dark - what now?

"My prospect went dark, what do I do?"

4 words.

Nudge-Nudge-Pushaway-Pushaway

𝐍𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞:

How's Tuesday or Thursday?

𝐍𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞:

Hey Jane, you mentioned wanted to kickoff that POC in our last call ahead of the big product launch in May.

How does Weds at 2pm or Fri at 1pm look?

𝐏𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲:

Hey Jane, completely get it if priorities changed on your end.

Still wanna kick off the POC or should we hold off for now?

𝐏𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲:

Hey Jane, I know things change and I'd hate to keep following-up if this wasn't a fit for your team anymore.

Mind letting me know if I should close this one out?

(And it's 100% okay if the answer's yes. Would rather know either way!)

Nudge it 2x to get the next step.

Pushaway 2x to get the truth.

[pushthepaceacademy]

Career Advice I Know at 32 I Wish I Knew at 22

Found this on LinkedIn (GREAT Advice)

Career Advice I Know at 32 I Wish I Knew at 22

Two traits will make you indispensable:

Get stuff done.

Be easy to work with.

Hard work is critical, but even more important:

What you work on.

Who you work with.

You don’t owe an employer loyalty:

You owe it to yourself to get a job that pays you the value you create.

Specialists are overrated, generalists are underrated:

Build a stack of complementary skills (e.g., a creative who understands sales and marketing).

Master the 4-bullet update for powerful people:

Here’s what you asked me to do.

Here’s what I did.

Here are the risks/blockers (if any).

If given more time, I’d do this...

Embrace your weirdness:

Being weird sets you apart and may lead to ultimate happiness.

Don’t complain or gossip:

Complaining is unappealing.

Gossiping makes people wonder if you talk badly about them too.

Treat yourself like a mental athlete:

Prioritize brain health:

Stay hydrated.

Take long walks.

Eat nutritious foods.

Have a strong rest ethic.

Remember all the names:

People’s favorite sound is their name.

Their second favorite sound might be the names of their loved ones and pets. Write them down and ask by name later.

Success isn’t a zero-sum game:

Your greatest asset is a network of people whose lives you’ve positively impacted.

“Great leaders create more leaders, not followers.” —Roy T. Bennett

[pushthepaceacademy]

There are 3 types of email CTA

There are 3 types of email CTA But only one works The three types are: Direct Interest based and the one that actually works... Value based. Let’s start with the shittest. Direct →Let’s take 30 minutes to chat? Here’s my calendar. Worked in 2003. Not anymore. Slightly less shit but still pointless. Interest based →Sound interesting? →Something you’re working on? →Worth looking into? Get’s meetings despite having this CTA Not BECAUSE of this CTA. Then onto the king. The top dog. The money maker. Value based. → Could I show you how TalCorp save €36,000 per year for every 100kW they generate? → If you’re open to taking 15 minutes, I can share the outbound campaigns MyBrightside Agency used to book 175 meetings and >$750k in revenue? → Could I share a video on how Provoke finds 2500 warm leads from linkedin, leading to 90+ meetings each month? Cha-ching ↳ Offers valuable resource ↳ Solution to a problem ↳ Mentions main KPI If you want positive replies Use value based CTAs. ~ Helping 100+ Outbound Sales Teams Hit Their Target (with lemlist) Sales team with >5 reps? Send me a DM 🙌🏼

[pushthepaceacademy]

Buyers ask themselves 5 crucial questions before they spend money.

Here's exactly how I structure my follow-ups to stop deals from slipping or ghosting at the last minute. Buyers ask themselves 5 crucial questions before they spend money. So we match our follow ups to each different question of the buying journey. The questions: 1/ "Do we Have a Problem or Goal that we Urgently need help with?" Follow up examples: Thought Leadership emphasizing the size / importance of the problem. Things like articles from Forbes, McKinsey, HBR or an industry specific publication. Screenshots, summations or info-graphics. NOT LINKS. No one reads them. 2/ "What's out there to Solve the Problem? How do Vendors differ?" Follow up examples: Sample RFP templates with pre-filled criteria. Easy to read buying guides. Especially if written by a 3rd party. 3/ "What Exactly do we need this Solution to do? Who do we feel good about?" Follow up examples: 3 bullets of criteria your Buyers commonly use during evaluations (especially differentiators.) Here's example wording I've used at UserGems: "Thought you might find it helpful to see how other companies have evaluated tools to track their past champions. Their criteria are usually: *Data quality & ROI potential *Security (SOC2 type 2 and GDPR) *How easy or hard is it to take action: set up/training, automation, playbooks Cheers!" 4/ "Is the Juice worth the Squeeze - both $$$ & Time?" Follow up examples: Screenshots of emails, texts or DMs from customers talking about easy set up. Love using ones like the Slack pictured here. Feels more organic and authentic than a marketing case study. 5/ "What's next? How will this get done?" Follow up examples: Visual timelines Introductions to the CSM/onboard team Custom/short videos from CSM leadership When we tailor our follow ups to answer the questions our Buyers are asking themselves - Even (especially!) the subconscious ones Our sales cycles can be smoother, faster and easier to forecast. Buyer Experience > Sales Stages What's your best advice for how to follow up? ps - If you liked this breakdown, join 5,000 other sellers getting value from my newsletter. Details on my website!

[pushthepaceacademy]

B2B

Do they have something they're looking to achieve, a problem to fix, or both?

If so, why can't they fix it on their own & what have they tried?

What do they want that WILL get them the results?

If they had that, are they ready to get started with it?

Yes?

Cool, here's what we do and here's how it fixes all your problems + gets you to xyz result.

[pushthepaceacademy]

Here are the top 10 things I wish I’d known when starting out:

1. Sellers don’t close deals, buyers do. Obsess with buyers’ internal meetings as much as your sales meetings. Tie your actions to the critical tasks they need to complete to build consensus internally, not your sales stages. 2. Having all calls on the calendar ≠ control (!). It is the illusion of control. If calls aren’t balanced with a good between-meeting buyer enablement workflow, you’ll most likely end up surprised. 3. Your role is not to just execute your sales stages, but offer ‘Project Management Services’ to your buyers’ stages. The sales stages are there to offer a good foundation to go back to, but they cover only 5-17% of your buyers’ stages… 4. Budget rarely is a reason to qualify out. Nobody wakes up with a budget set aside for the thing you sell. "No budget" simply means they haven’t found a good enough reason to create one yet. Unless they’re too small, in which case, why are you having a sales call? 5. Multithreading is more than how many people are on your calls/emails. That’s a vanity metric. It’s about building relationships with each key stakeholder separately to support their specific needs/requirements/concerns. That’s what moves the needle. 6. Structured deep discovery doesn’t work well in executive calls. You *have to* lead with stories, teach them something new, and let a conversation develop. If you try to have conversations first, they’ll tune off. 7. You *cannot* run Outbound intro calls like it’s Inbound. Lead with discovery on the latter. Lead with insights on the first (like w/execs). It’s ok to use slides if they serve the discovery. It’s even OK to demo before you have all the pain points figured out. As long as it all serves the discovery. 8. Only in a perfect role-play can you get all disco done in an intro call. If you try too hard, you end up with angry prospects. Worry less about the letters in your framework, and more about having a meaningful conversation around ‘why do anything’, ‘why now’ and ‘why you’. The rest only helps you and can come later. 9. Nothing cuts down deal cycles like dictating a high rhythm of communication. Received an email? Answer from your phone right away. Talking next steps? Offer a call tomorrow. Discussed timelines/MAP? Recap that on every follow-up. It’s not a sales trick, it’s sociology, human nature. 10. Never begin a POC without executive alignment. On the scope, success criteria, and the problem and priorities the project addresses. Explain to your champion how getting execs involved helps get their voices heard before putting in all the resources that a POC requires. Make it about them, not you.

[pushthepaceacademy]

10 Commandments

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟭𝟬 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀:

What we heard slide. Start the call going over what you learned on your first call. Specifically, their priorities, challenges and desired future state. "Jill, I'd like to start with what I learned about [company] after our first call."

What we'll show slide. Outline exactly what you'll show and why. Call out how your product is different and why those difference matter. "Jill, here's what we're going to show today as it relates to [priority]."

Get their attention before showing something important. People have short attention spans. "Jill, if you remember one thing from this presentation let this be it."

Most powerful feature first. Do not give a harbor tour demo ie show everything. Instead focus on 1-3 features that are directly tied to their priorities. "Jill, here's the first way we're going to help with [priority]"

Before showing something. Ask about their current process so you can really compare and contrast. "Hey Jill, I'm about to show X. Before doing that, can you walk me in your shoes and walk me through your process step-by-step? When you need to X what happens?"

After showing something. Instead of "any questions?" which the answer is no 90% of the time. Ask "What was running through your mind as I was sharing that?" or "What about [process] stood out to you the most?"

Involving others in the conversation. Make sure most/all people are a part of the call. "Hey Jack - Would love to get your take on what Jill and I discussed. Does this all apply to you and your team or what else is going on from your perspective?"

Making a recommendation for next steps. Save enough time (it's OK to interrupt) and outline: Exactly what will be covered and why it's valuable. "Jill, looking at the clock I'd like to take the remaining time to discuss next steps, if that's ok?"

Differentiate your product. Make sure to explicitly call out when your product is different and why those differences matter. Don't leave it up to them to understand on their own. "Hey Jill, X is important because it's a differentiator of [company]. Other providers do X. We do Y. And here's why Y is important."

Ask your demo to be rated from 1 to 10. That way you can hear the truth about how it went, how much interest there is or if there are any hesitations you need to get ahead of. "Hey Jill, would love your honest take on this demo. On a scale of 1 to 10 what would you rate our solution as it relates to [priority]?

[pushthepaceacademy]

You’ve lost your deal as soon as you give away access to a trial.

It’s the most common question you’ll get at the end of your demo.

“Can we get access to a trial so we can play around with the platform?”

How we tend to respond?

“Sure, I can get you 30-day trial. Let me get that setup for you. I’ll follow up in a week.”

1 week later

“We’ve been pretty busy and haven’t got a chance to login.”

2 weeks later

*crickets*

4 weeks later

closed lost, no response

Why?

Because you had no control of your deal.

……………………………………………

Here's how to flip the script 👇

Prospect: “Can we get access to a trial so we can play around with the platform?”

AE: “If you don’t mind me asking, what are you looking to accomplish via a trial?

*understand the why first*

you’d be surprised how easy you could address it in some cases (w/o a trial)

But let’s say they respond with,

Prospect: “It’s standard process for any vendor we’re evaluating. Need to ensure we’re comfortable with the tool before we commit.”

AE: “Got it. There are 3 things we align on with our customers prior to the start of a trial / pilot so they can maximize use of the platform during this period.

Could I walk you through it?”

Prospect: “OK.”

AE: “1 - map out the use cases prior to the trial / pilot to ensure we're aligned to what you want to solve for

2 - clearly defining your success criteria. and, if met, next steps in terms of a roll-out across your business unit.

3 - what we find is questions usually come up when teams access the trial.

Rather than go back and forth over email and to ensure the best experience,

We usually have 2-3 calls over the course of the trial so we’re aligned and you have everything you need to make the best decision for your business.

Is that an unfair ask?”

…………………………………………….

If they agree, send them a doc that outlines:

- customer stakeholders - your company stakeholders - use case descriptions - success criteria you’ve agreed upon - scheduled calls for ongoing engagement - customer exec sponsors - your company exec sponsor

…………………………………………..

Take control of your key deals.

[pushthepaceacademy]

The greatest time-waster in sales is working deals that aren’t ever gonna close.

The greatest time-waster in sales is working deals that aren’t ever gonna close.

The best way to reality check your deals is to provide an “out” for your prospect.

Might sound like:

🟢 Dave, you shared earlier that our pricing is much higher than your current vendor. Think it’s even worth continuing to evaluate us?

🟢 Emma, you mentioned that June & July are your busiest months. Should we press pause on things for now?

🟢 Sean, it didn’t seem like Mary was crazy about our demo last week. Think it might make sense to stick with your current process instead of switching?

When you provide your prospect with an “out”, 1 of 3 things will happen:

They Opt Out: And you were going to lose it anyway!

They Share More: And now you can address/overcome that concern.

They Opt In: They justify WHY they want to keep evaluating you. It’s not fun working for free.

Dead on the vine deals force you to work for free.

Cull the herd so you can put your effort into winning the real ones

Great Post By Nick on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nick-cegelski_the-greatest-time-waster-in-sales-is-working-activity-7154899704697298944-r_KR?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop)

[pushthepaceacademy]

“Send me an email.”

Here’s how to handle this objection: ✅  Step 1: Reality check Once you hang up the phone, the success rate of landing a meeting goes down dramatically. There’s literally <1% success rate of sending an email that blows the socks off your prospect so much they respond with: “KILLER email! Yes, let’s talk. Are you available right now?” Play the odds. You’re better off asking for the meeting again. ✅  Step 2: Comply Prospect: “Can you send me an email?” Rep: “Sure thing, happy to.” Doing so disarms the prospect. And that’s all you can ask for when objection handling during a cold call. Genuine conversation. That’s the goal. ✅  Step 3: Get more info Now it’s time to dig in. Your goal is to anchor back to a legitimate reason for the prospect to meet with you. Prospect: “Can you send me an email.” Rep: “Sure thing, happy to. So I can get the right info to you—typically, I hear from HR leaders that reducing manual admin tasks from their team’s workload is a focus. How does that compare to your world right now?” Then dig in for as much as the prospect is willing: - Find out their current solution - See if they have similar problems that your clients have ✅  Step 4: Ask for the meeting Now it’s time to anchor what you just learned to the reason for meeting. Rep: “Got it, this is exactly what we’ve helped ABC and XYZ companies with. Their HR teams were getting bogged down with manual admin. work across the five solutions they pieced together for payroll, benefits, onboarding, etc. How about this—most of the material we send over can be very generic and unhelpful. A more effective use of your time would be to spend time with one of our HR specialists to look at this through a lens that’s more specific to your business. Do you have your calendar handy?” This usually does the trick ✅  Step 5: How to handle resistance Still getting resistance? Try this: Rep: “Okay, no worries. How about we put 5 minutes on the calendar for tomorrow when you’ve had a chance to look over the email? If you like what you see, we keep the meeting. If you don’t, you can cancel. Sound fair?”

[pushthepaceacademy]

Ten killer closing questions to ask your buyer in the next week, to help end Q4 successfully:

1. From this point, who in the business can kill this deal? 2. When you go to your CFO, what are the reasons you are going to tell them the business should invest in this? 3. If we don't launch this in the New Year, how does that impact what you are trying to achieve? 4. What tough questions do you expect to get asked when you take this to get signed off? 5. What remaining concerns do you have about doing this? 6. The last time you bought something like this, what did the process look like from here on in? 7. Shall we review the business case together once more and make sure its rock solid? 8. It feels premature to be negotiating the price. Pricing aside, who do you feel is the partner you want to work with on this? 9. It's a tough economic climate right now, how do you feel this may impact getting sign off? 10. I fully expect you to get some push back from your CFO on this. What will you say to them if they do?

Repost from Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/richard-smith-allego_ten-killer-closing-questions-to-ask-your-activity-7135187980591230977-sflQ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

[pushthepaceacademy]

Here's a list of 39 sales questions you can use to close more deals.

Here's a list of 39 sales questions you can use to close more deals.

Organized by question type:

Uncover business pain:

- What are the challenges you’d regret not solving in 6 mos? - Why would you regret not solving that in six months? - What are the most nagging challenges you face in x area? - How satisfied are you with (pain area your product solves)? - How high does [problem] rank on your “priority slide”? - What made you take this call out of all calls you could have? - Can you tell me more about (x problem)? - Can you give me an example? - How long has this been happening? - How often does this happen? - What have you tried to solve it? - How did that work out?

Build negative impact:

- How would (x problem) derail you? - What are the ripple effects of (problem) on the business? - How is this challenge impacting the business as a whole? - Who else does this challenge impact? How? - How much is this challenge costing the business? - What’s driving you to solve this issue now rather than later? - How is this challenge affecting (insert specific impact)? - What are the downsides when it comes to…  - What effect does that have on… - How often does that cause… - How often does that lead to…

Build a future vision:

- How important is it to solve x challenge? - How would you prioritize it among everything else? - What do you think you need to solve this challenge? - Have you thought about [insert unique product capability]? - To what extent do you think that would help? - What advantages do you see from those capabilities? - What business outcome would that move the needle on? - How much would that be worth? - Awkward question: why is that meaningful to you?

Navigate the decision process:

- What’s changed since last we talked? - What steps do you need to take to make a yes/no decision? - Who are the people involved in each of those steps? - How is each person involved? - Can you tell me about each person's decision criteria? - How are you thinking about funding this project? - What circumstances need to be met to move forward by x? - What would derail us from getting things done? - Is there any reason for us to not move forward now?

What are your go-to questions?

[pushthepaceacademy]

If I could re-do past sales calls, some things I woulda re-phrased:

❌ I'd love to loop Derek into the conversation

✅ My recommendation is that we include Derek in our next demo

"Love to" makes your ask seem like a nice to have.

If you truly believe what you'd "love to" do is the right thing for the customer, use the word "recommend".

___

❌ I'll set a reminder to check in with you in a couple of weeks.

✅ Derek, do you think it might make sense to put a pause on this project?

Next steps on the calendar are NOT good if you're wasting time with prospects who are never going to buy.

Some prospects are simply too nice and will meet with you every couple of months instead of just telling you no. You know you're in trouble when you keep hearing the words "holding pattern".

Provide these folks with a way out & spend your time talking to prospects who are actually gonna buy.

___

❌ Pricing

✅ Commercial Terms

Pricing = money, nothing else.

Commercial Terms = money, billing terms, number of user licenses, contract length, case studies, etc

Expand your negotiation to commercial terms, not just price.

___

❌ I'd love for you to join 30 Minutes to President's Club's July Tactic TV "What Should You Have Said Instead?"

✅ Okay, while you won't get a do-over on real sales calls, here is your chance to learn from Jason Bay, Jen Allen-Knuth & Kyle Asay about what they would have "said instead" on real sales calls.

Want the link to join? LMK in the comments & I'll send it to you.

[pushthepaceacademy]

Past <--> Present (GAP)

[pushthepaceacademy]

Simple 3 step framework for Discovery calls:

--> Instant Credibilty --> The Menu of Pain --> Match Their Urgency

This looks like:

--> Instant Credibilty I start the meeting with our "Nascar slide" on my screen. The first thing they see when they join the meeting is 20+ well-known logos. Our Reference clients.

Their brain instantly processes the familiar images and it registers as "my peers are already doing this."

Way more impactful than an "About Us" slide

Instant credibility + also FOMO

Without me saying a word

--> The Menu of Pain

Friction reduction applies to discovery

Don't ask them "essay" questions

Give them multiple choice

Here's the formula: In this role, I talk to [your industry] leaders all day long. They tell me about their heartburn around problems A, B, and C. How much of that sounds like your world & what did I miss?

IRL this sounds like: "Usually, when Sales leaders join these calls they usually want to either Capitalize or Catch up. • They have hiring freezes, but quotas are not going down. • They're facing double-digit growth metrics. And not sure how they're going to hit them. • They are seeing Pipeline dry up in these market conditions. And so they're looking for a new channel. • . . . OR - they're facing none of these challenges, are hitting record high revenue, and want to capitalize to grab market share.

• Curious how much of that sounds like your world? And what did I miss?"

--> Match Their Urgency

There are 3 reasons people show up for Discovery calls.

Figuring this out saves everyone time.**

This sounds like:

"Sometimes people join these calls because they are in education mode and just want to understand new tools.

Sometimes people join these calls because they have a big churn, pipeline or revenue problem they needed to solve 6 months ago.

Sometimes people join these calls because they need to do something about big churn, pipeline or revenue in the next 12 months, but it's not urgent.

Curious where would you put yourself on that scale?

Asking because I never want to chase anyone.

If today was purely education, that's ok."

**I ask this at the end of the call

After they've gotten the product overview

And BEFORE we talk next steps. Because their answer determines what next steps make sense.

My biggest struggle with Discovery calls is that there are 100 questions we could ask.

But we have to balance what we want to know with what the prospect wants from the call.

The simple 3 step framework helps me establish credibility, diagnose & qualify.

[pushthepaceacademy]

60+ DiscoveryQuestions

Have you heard about my company?

Why did you take this meeting?

How can I make this a good use of your time

Why act? and why now?

What are your branch expansion plans in the next year?

How are you currently using our platform?

How are things working now? Followed by what bad things are happening?

Where do you see your business in a year from now?

What are the top priorities of your CEO this year?

What has you looking into my company?

How long have you been working on this issue?

What do you like about your current solution?

Who else cares about that?

Why now?

What are you hoping to get out of this meeting?

How would XYZ impact your business?

What are the downstream effects if you don’t address problem X?

What are your goals?

What were your expectations for this call?

What are we doing here?

What piqued your interest in the videos I sent you

What frictions are you experiencing in your business

Why do anything - what bad thing happens if you don’t?

Why now? What happens if you do nothing?

What does success look like?

What happens if you don't make a change?

How do your business priorities right now align with your role?

What brought you to our company today?

What's motivating you to be on this call?

What are 2-3 things you'd like to accomplish today?

What’s your story?

Is there anything we didn't cover today, that you think is important to bring up?

How do you learn more about your prospects

How are you currently doing things?

Who else should we get involved in this process?

What projects are currently a priority?

What are the ramifications to the business of doing nothing?

Do you have any pet peeves I should know about?

Are you comfortable with these next steps…

What does your ideal future look like?

What makes your job hard?

“I know I have a few things that I am hoping to cover on today’s call like x,y,z, but what are you hoping to get out of today’s call?”

If you had a magic wand what would you change enhance?

Who brought you into the company?

How can I help you create a better experience for your clients?

What happens if we get this right? How does it impact your business?

Where is the room to improve?

What happens if we solve this challenge?

To what extent are you using XYZ today?

How long has that been a problem?

What are potential challenges that could get in the way of you accomplishing yourstrategic drivers?

How does this affect you personally?

What do you like about your current solution?

Now that I know your current workflow is there anything in your process you’d like to change?

How does your life get easier if our solution works for you?

If we implement a new solution, a year from now what looks or feels different?

Who else in your organization shares your concerns or priorities?

How are we going to measure success together?

What’s the best way to demonstrate value to your team?

How does this issue impact you, your dept, and your company

Do you have to give a 30-day notice w your current vendor before it auto-renews?

Last time you purchased something like this what did that process look like?