30 Minutes to President's Club | No-Nonsense Sales

185 (Sell) Ditch Open-Ended Discovery for POV Discovery (Tom Williams @ Clari)

Jan 9, 2024

In this episode, Tom Williams, head of Clari Align and former CEO of DealPoint, discusses the importance of bringing a point of view to sales meetings and understanding the buyer's problem. He also explores the challenges of maintaining spreadsheets and the negative impact of starting a call with a screen share. Additionally, he shares insights on creating a specific approach for building in-house vs using a proper product and using events to test and refine the point of view.

30:54

Episode guests

Tom Williams

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Sales reps should bring a point of view to customer calls that introduces a new way of looking at the root cause of a problem.

Salespeople should help customers understand the cost of not solving their problem by emphasizing the pain and quantifiable cost.

Deep dives

Developing a Point of View

It is important for salespeople to have a point of view about their customers' business or job role. By identifying a problem and offering a solution, sales reps can add value and show that they understand the customer's needs. To develop a strong point of view, salespeople can seek input from senior leaders in their own company and learn from their insights.

Introduction

5min

The Importance of Developing a Point of View in Sales Meetings

10min

Shifting focus from solutions to understanding the buyer's problem

9min

Creating and Sharing a Specific Approach, Factors and Costs of Building In-House vs Using a Proper Product

2min

The Challenges of Spreadsheet Maintenance and Salespeople's Bad Habit of Screen Sharing

7min

Steal Clari’s templates to get your deals closer to close

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Help your customer build a case for why they shouldn’t be trying to build their software in-house.
If you’re having trouble building your own POV, hit up a senior exec at your company and ask to get lunch with them to help you build one.
Don’t show up to your first call expecting the customer to do all of the hard work answering your questions. Instead, bring a point of view to the call that introduces a new way of looking at the root cause of a problem you think they might have.
If you’re going to an event, use that as an opportunity to test your point of view with other executives.

PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

Head of Clari Align @ Clari
CEO @ DealPoint
VP Sales and Marketing @ CloudEngage, Inc.
Co-Founder @ Presspoint CRM

RESOURCES DISCUSSED

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