Sales Strategy & Enablement by Revenue.io

1105: Find Common Ground to Convert Unreceptive Buyers with Tom Stanfill

Oct 27, 2022

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

Tom Stanfill is the Co-Founder and CEO of ASLAN Training and the author of UnReceptive. A customer's willingness to listen matters more than your ability to communicate. Tom discusses the concept of receptivity and how unreceptive buyers refuse to be influenced by sellers.

Tom digs into identifying emotionally closed customers and honing skills beyond playbooks and strategies to influence a customer's willingness to listen. Andy also puts a spotlight on many sellers’ reliance on top of funnel and a rather lazy acceptance of low rin rates.

HIGHLIGHTS

Find common ground in the customer's whiteboard
Observing a shift from salesy to authentic sales behavior
Influence a customer's willingness to listen
Low win rates: Product-market fit or bad selling?

QUOTES

Persuading an emotionally-closed person will backfire - Tom: "It comes from this principle that I call the Cornerstone Principle because it's a cornerstone of everything we teach is that, when someone's emotionally closed, the more you try to persuade them, the more closed they become."

Start a conversation based on the customer's whiteboard - Tom: "Most people really do have a whiteboard. If they don't, metaphorically, they have a whiteboard and the whiteboard is real simple. They want something. Everybody wants something, and then they have a plan to get there. Everybody. And so, if I start with what's on their whiteboard, it always captivates their attention."

Helping customers authentically creates a competitive advantage - Tom: "Drop the rope. Don't try to manipulate people and control them because control's just an illusion, and people will respond. And that is a competitive advantage that you will have that will separate you from the 98 other people that are sending the same emails and the same LinkedIn requests and the same message over and over again."

Find out more about Tom in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomstanfill/
Company website: https://www.aslantraining.com/
Book website: https://www.unreceptivebook.com/