Are there too many influencers?

Published: Wed, 08/16/23

August 16, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch” is an old expression that some people like to apply to sales. But whoever was counting their chickens probably didn’t have a chicken manager standing over their shoulder asking how their chickens were coming along, or a chicken relationship manager software designed specifically for the tracking of the chickens. Bottom line: if it makes you feel better, count the freaking chickens. Let’s do the newsletter.

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

What do buyers want from sales pros? 69% say, “Listen to my needs.”

Source: HubSpot

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

Computer giant Dell is the latest company to lay off portions of their sales team, announcing layoffs which may or may not be part of the 6,650 job cuts it announced earlier this year. Dell confirmed that it "will cut jobs among its core sales teams as it adopts a new partner-led model that pays its direct sales force more to sell storage products through the channel." You can read the full report here.
An ex-Salesforce vice president is suing his former employer, claiming the company lied about its software capabilities and retaliated against him for raising concerns about the product claims. Karl Wirth, who was promoted to senior vice president in January 2022, said in a lawsuit that the company falsely advertised the capability of its Customer Data Platform, and when he raised concerns to his superiors, he was fired. You can the full report here.

FEATURE

Here are the questions you should ask after you lose (or win) a deal, according to Harvard Business Review researchers

We’ve all read the dreaded “we’ve decided to go in another direction” email, sometimes for a deal we were sure was going to close. When that happens, we usually don’t dwell on the whys and hows. Similarly, once we’ve secured a deal, we don’t usually go back and parse out why it closed — because we’re great, obviously.

Lisa Earle McLeod and Ian Gross, who have years of experience leading and coaching sales teams, have noticed that a sales retrospective that analyzes the reasons behind a win or loss can really help a team’s future chances of success. In a recent Harvard Business Review article, they laid out their findings. And it doesn’t have to be a long, drawn-out process either — McLeod and Gross found that even 10 minutes can yield helpful results.

Below are three questions McLeod and Gross developed for organizations and individuals to use in a sales retrospective, with a design to help the team understand what’s really driving customers’ choices. These questions work whether the team won or lost the deal.

How would the customer articulate the value of their choice?

Ask how the customer would articulate the benefits of the product they chose, whether it was yours or your competitor’s. Think about how the product affects not just the department or team you were pitching to but the whole company — it can give you valuable information about how the client perceives your product. Whether you won or lost the deal, this information will be useful for your next pitch. There is a morale piece that goes along with these exercises, too. When you unpack wins rather than just focus on when something went wrong, it reminds everyone that the product they’re selling is a good one.

Whose voice was the most influential?

Even if it’s not clear from the start who the key stakeholders are at a company, knowing who they are once you’ve won a deal helps you implement your solution most effectively. Knowing who they are once you’ve lost prepares you to address people in these kinds of positions earlier in the process next time. And keep your focus on what to do better next time, rather than pointing fingers at whom you may think lost you the deal.

Beyond price, what criteria did the client use to make their final decision?

When losing a deal, it’s tempting to jump to price as the main culprit. But this is rarely the whole story. Asking your team to go beyond pricing and delve into what makes their product sing helps contextualize it in the broader landscape and see how it stacks up against the competition. After all, when a client asks why they should buy your product, you don’t want your only answer to be that it’s the cheapest one available.

You can even ask clients why they chose another company over yours, as long as you keep the ask value-neutral and don’t try to re-pitch your product in the process.

Don’t “Always Be Retrospecting”

It’s impossible to have a retrospective after every single deal, and it’s a bad idea to have them after particularly heated and disappointing losses with large clients. McLeod and Gross recommend at least one retrospective per account executive per quarter. And once these retrospectives become a habit, hopefully sales teams will do their own reflecting after a deal without the structure of a retrospective.

Even going from no retrospectives to just a few is a big win for companies that want to distill what makes their product and teams successful. McLeod and Gross found that these retrospectives make account executives feel heard and both sales and marketing more effective.

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

Which automotive maker has the highest number of salespeople in the U.S.?

A. Toyota
B. Ford Motor Company
C. Stellantis
D. General Motors

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

This happened to me toward the end of the pandemic. I was one of the first sales hires at a small startup with a bit of funding. We were growing slowly but consistently. I closed a deal with a tech company based in India (I'm located in New York) so there was a big time difference.

After they signed the contract, I sent a calendar invite for everyone to hop on a kickoff call. They specifically requested that the call be at 2:30PM their time, which was 5AM in NYC. Our team all got up and hopped on the call 10 minutes early to prepare. It was still dark outside and everybody looked like they had just rolled out of bed.

The client joined the call 5 minutes late. I started talking through the agenda, and she stopped me mid-sentence and said, "Actually, I came on this call to let you know that we’re canceling." She said that they no longer had the budget for the project. This was one week after they signed the agreement!

We were a small startup, and they were a little bigger but definitely not a big company. We didn't bother getting any lawyers involved and just chalked it up to a loss. I was confused at the time, since this was the only time in my career that a prospect actually signed a contract and then a week later decided they didn't want to honor it.

I laugh about the ridiculousness of it now, but I was pissed that I woke the entire team up for a 5am call for the client to essentially nix the deal, which they could have just done by email.

Anonymous New York City

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- August 2023

WORTH A PEEK

As salespeople, we love saying yes, but sometimes we have to say no, especially when prospects are asking for things we can’t deliver (like every other day). HubSpot has a good post on how to turn down a customer’s request the right way. Read it here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team

I've been working in sales for the last 6 years selling medical devices. I got into sales right after graduating college and love the competition and the ability to make a ton of money (I always joke with my banker friends that they should quit and start a sales career since I work less and make more than them). I feel like I have some good experience now and I've learned the ins and outs of selling - I'm not saying I'm an expert, but I think I have a unique perspective.

All of this is a way of saying I'm seriously considering investing more time into building out my personal brand. I've seen a handful of sellers I respect on LinkedIn who create great posts that I find insightful, and aside from that, I'm seeing that they're able to flip their audiences into new side hustle revenue streams. Any advice to someone just starting out who wants to build a personal brand and create content in the sales niche?

Ambitious in Florida

Dear Ambitious,

If you want to build a successful following online, there are two ways to go about it.

The first way: be completely unoriginal. Copy what everybody else is doing. Repeat it almost verbatim. Be manipulative. Make up personal stories and share anecdotes about things that never actually happened, and design the posts in such a way that they tug at the reader’s heartstrings or guilt the reader into giving you one of those precious likes to boost your engagement. Oh, and don’t forget to add a random photo to the post to get the reader’s attention. Once you’ve got the ball rolling, keep the content flowing by repeating the same thing over and over again just in different ways. Every time there’s a trend (AI, crypto, NFTs) make sure you’re the first one posting about it, positioning yourself as an expert and making all sorts of predictions about what’s “about to” happen. This is the formula.

The second way: do something different. Look around and ask yourself: what’s missing in the sales space, and do I have the perspective and experience to share something important and valuable? If the answer is yes, then share it. Be direct and be honest. Don’t pretend to be somebody you’re not. Don’t try to game the algorithm. Don’t lie. Post things that actually help people. Be consistent. Don’t manipulate your audience. Don’t act like you have all the answers. Be humble. Really think about the things you post. If you came up with it in 5 seconds, it’s probably worthless spam. Oh, and if you become wildly successful, don’t forget to send us a 5% cut. Good luck!

Quiz Answer: D — General Motors (read the source article here)

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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