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

Why Buyers HATE Your Sales Process | Jake Dunlap | Ep. 288 (Sell)

Feb 18, 2025

Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled Consulting and former VP of Sales at Glassdoor, shares his insights on modern sales tactics. He introduces the VEX Scale to tailor approaches based on buyer awareness. Dunlap emphasizes the importance of understanding a prospect's journey through proactive communication. He advises skipping basic discovery for informed prospects and suggests maintaining focus and clarity when new stakeholders join calls. This approach aims to nurture relationships and streamline the sales process for better outcomes.

39:28

Episode guests

Jake Dunlap

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Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Sellers must classify prospects using the VEX Scale to tailor their sales approach based on each buyer's familiarity and readiness.

Effective communication through pre-call emails helps sellers understand buyers' journeys, promoting tailored discussions that efficiently address specific needs.

Deep dives

Understanding the Buyer Journey

A crucial aspect of sales is recognizing where a prospect stands in their buying journey. Prospects can vary significantly in their familiarity and readiness to purchase a solution, which necessitates different approaches in communications and meetings. For instance, treating a completely cold prospect should be fundamentally different from handling someone who is ready to buy and familiar with competitor offerings. By identifying whether a prospect is vetted, educated, cold, or prefers self-service, sellers can tailor their engagement strategy to align with where the buyer is specifically in their journey.

Intro

5min

Adapting to the Modern Buyer: The Shift Towards Self-Service Sales

1min

Streamlining the Sales Discovery Process for Maximum Efficiency

2min

Communicating Effectively with Sales Engineering Teams

3min

Navigating the Buyer's Journey

20min

Enhancing Sales Processes and Team Demos

2min

FOUR ACTIONABLE TAKEAWAYS

Understand the VEX Scale: Classify prospects as Vetted (using a competitor), Educated (familiar but undecided), Cold (new to the space), or Self-Service. Tailor your approach accordingly.
Ask About Their Journey: Send an email upfront asking where they are in their learning process. This helps you position the conversation at the right level.
Skip Basic Discovery for Vetted Prospects: If they already use a competitor, focus on their current solution’s gaps and ideal outcomes instead of re-explaining the category.
Avoid Restarting Discovery: When new stakeholders join later calls, recap prior findings first, then ask how those problems impact their specific role.

JAKE'S PATH TO PRESIDENT’S CLUB

CEO @ Skaled Consulting
VP Sales @ Nowait, Inc. (acquired by Yelp)
Head of Sales & Customer Success @ Chartbeat
Vice President of Sales, Success, and Sales Operations @ Glassdoor

RESOURCES DISCUSSED

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