Invest in Human-Centric Skills for Better Selling with Andy Paul

This episode of the Live Better Seller Better Podcast features Andy Paul, speaker, host of the Revenue.io and Sales Enablement Podcasts, and author of multiple books including Amp Up Your Sales, Zero-Time Selling, and the upcoming book Sell Without Selling Out.

Predictable revenue models are more than 20 years old. However, this product-focused, pitch-focused approach has been proven to not be effective. What it lacks is the skill of having genuine conversations with prospects. Andy suggests to instead invest in your people and instill human-oriented skills before teaching them to become sellers.

There is also a radical shift coming in the near future where commissions are no longer the focus of sellers. With the idea of commissions removed, buyers have more trust knowing that sellers are speaking to them with a genuine desire to help. 

These conversations allow sellers to ask vision questions where they can paint a picture of a better life when buyers use their product. This radical change in approach applies all the way up management too, as teaching human-centric skills like empathy cascades down to sales teams, resulting in more wins for everybody. 

SHOW NOTES

HIGHLIGHTS

04:24 Lack of results caused a shift away from predictable revenue models

13:11 Get rid of commissions: This motivation starts with managers 

17:51 Sell effectively by helping buyers get what's most important to them

19:43 Knowing vs understanding: Discovery occurs naturally in conversation

24:44 Paint a picture of a better future for your buyers   

27:14 Train your frontline managers so they can give the right tools to their teams

32:05 Teach leaders that they only succeed when their people succeed 

37:09 Build a mindset of helping others and be flexible with processes

43:27 Live better by worrying less and compete with yourself, not others

47:08 Connect with Andy Paul and preorder his upcoming book

QUOTES

05:22 "I think that SaaS as a business, the overall win rate that companies have is relatively low. And when they try to bring that type of win rate into a more complex enterprise environment where there aren't as many prospects, you can't be as wasteful."

12:22 "One of the ways you build trust is to be completely transparent in your motivations and then to live up to those motivations, you know, operate with integrity."

16:17 "You can read study after study that says that the primary motivation for salespeople is not making money. It's the job satisfaction, job well done, the things that come with it. Pay people well for performance and I think you can do away with commissions." 

24:51 "Another type of question I like to ask are what I call vision questions, which is to have the buyer walk you through what it would be like to actually be using the product. So it's not just what the impact is but... What would this mean on a daily basis?"

42:35 "Less focus on sort of the detailed activity metrics and more about outcomes—but also holding people accountable for outcomes, but understanding also that everybody operates just a little bit differently."

You can find out more about Andy and get his books in the links below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realandypaul/

Website: https://www.andypaul.com/