227 (Sell) Building Champions Who Will Get The Deal Done (Joe McNeill, Influ2)
Jun 25, 2024
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Joe McNeill, CRO at Influ2, shares insights on building sales champions and understanding motives. Topics include embracing silence, setting conditions for progress, groundswell motion strategy, and identifying personal and business motives. Strategies for qualifying leads, mastering active listening, and navigating modern buying groups are also discussed.
Embrace silence to allow for thoughtful responses during prospect conversations.
Building a champion involves understanding motives and aligning personal and business goals for successful sales.
Deep dives
Qualifying the Buying Process and Identifying Champions
Qualifying the buying process involves understanding the entry point based on the person you're talking to. Building a champion entails determining if the contact you're conversing with can move the deal forward and tailoring your approach based on their status. Trusting actions over words helps in evaluating the buying process and qualifying the champion to bargain for necessary access.
Efficient Time Blocking and Task Focus
Blocking your time and focusing on one task at a time enhances productivity, especially in sales roles like being an AE. By prioritizing one task and avoiding distractions, you can efficiently close deals and drive outcomes that contribute to meeting quotas. Focusing on impactful tasks and tracking progress, like flipping cards per task completed, helps in recognizing daily achievements.
Active Listening and Effective Questioning
Active listening and asking impactful questions are crucial sales skills that extend beyond professional contexts. Practicing curiosity and thoughtful silence aids in processing information and formulating relevant questions to drive meaningful conversations. The balance lies in engaging in a dialogue rather than interrogation, fostering rapport and understanding even in unfamiliar topics.
Building Business Cases Tied to Executive Pain
Developing business cases aligned with executive pain points is essential for sales success. Tailoring solutions that resonate with the executive's concerns about revenue impact and advertising allocation drives deal closures. Understanding individual motivations, like enhancing team efficiency for an SDR leader, complements crafting business cases tailored to executive decision-making criteria for a comprehensive sales strategy.
Embrace Silence: Don't fear pauses in conversations. It's natural to take a moment to think about your next question or response during a conversation with a prospect.
Setting Conditions for Progress: When faced with a contact unwilling to advance your connection, you have two options:
Explicitly ask them what conditions need to be met for them to introduce you to a higher-level contact, like a VP of Marketing.
Decide whether to follow their criteria or to prospect directly to reach your goal.
Groundswell Motion Strategy: In scenarios where a sales cycle starts with an Account Executive (AE), begin by offering assistance to the AE. This approach often leads to reciprocal help, allowing you to eventually ask for an introduction to your champion.
Understanding Motives: It's crucial to discern and address two types of motives, your champion's personal motives and the business or executive motives. Educate your champion on these motives and align them with the broader business objectives to facilitate successful sales efforts.