Premise:
One of the startup founders that I was coaching requested me to introduce selling to his entire team, including product managers and development teams. I strongly believe that it is important for everyone in a business to learn and know about how their products are sold to their customers. This information creates more empathy towards both the customers and their sales executives who interact with the customers.
You can find a recording of the session that I delivered here.
You can find the slides that I used here.
Key insights that I share:
1. Definition of Selling: Selling is all about finding “someone” who has a “problem” that they are willing to take “action” to invite someone (ideally you) who can solve their problem.
2. Space: Selling happens at the intersection of problems and their solutions. The difference between good and great sales executives is that the great sales executives spend a lot more time in the problem space first before they move to the solution space.
a. Problem space: In this phase, the person who is being sold to needs to identify and agree on a specific problem that they have, why is it a problem that they need to solve, why is it important that they solve it now.
b. Solution space: In this phase, the salesman convinces the buyer why they are the best person to solve the problem, explain the cost of inaction and how they can solve the problem.
3. Process: The effectiveness of the sales executives depends on how well they are able to define the problem for a prospect, how well their product or service can solve the problem and how effective the sales process they follow is. Irrespective of which process you use, it is important that you have one and follow the process.
In Conclusion:
The ability to sell is a meta skill that all of us need to develop irrespective of what role we play in our organisation. So, if you are not in the role of selling to customers, invite someone who sells your products or services to your customers and try to understand the process from them. The amount of learning for your team from that interaction can be significant and as a result it can improve your effectiveness multifold.
