How To: Finding the "Right" Customers
Validating the "right" buyers
“I didn’t sell the “best-in-class Forrester leader Conversational AI software.” No, my brand sold the limited opportunity for the right executives to fundamentally take the reins of how to deliver the ideal experience with every single one of their customers. And I found enough leaders that really wanted to do that sht!*”
This has been a light bulb moment that has been helping me break into both whitespace accounts along with growing existing customers. In fact, this was solidified after meeting with a top rep at my org who helped codify what success looked like, and what he looked for, that helped him succeed.
Brandon also breaks down that the real problem has less to do with the supplier selling effectively, but with the customer organization’s inability to buy effectively.
Part of my SKO experience earlier this year was centered around meeting a senior executive who was extremely gracious with their time. The talk was centered around what it took to implement change and transformation at a multi billion dollar organization.
Today I wanted to break down some key findings that will help anyone who is implementing enterprise solutions and looking for some cues that a company can be ready for change outside of just reaching out and doing discovery.
Regardless of what you’re selling, I’m confident you can apply these findings in some way as the underlying principles hold true.
Signals to Look For
I’m not going to harp too much on actually finding signals. I’ve discussed buyer research before and BowTiedSystems has done a great job of breaking outreach strategy and research.
Using these approaches, I’m looking for the following that helps me find ideal “buyers” and “buying organization profiles” after conducting the research and tactics above:
Who recently started a job?
Bonus points if senior and extra bonus points if they have exposure to my company
Who’s earlier in their career and showing progression?
These people are motivated to make a name for themselves and break the status quo
This is especially helpful when you’re using both top down and bottom up approaches in accounts - don’t underestimate newer members of a team who are hungry to make an impact even if they are junior/associate levels with this profile.
Who’s posting on social media?
This coincides nicely with above, they’re definitely trying to establish themselves as a thought leader.
If you’re looking at who started a job, realize that the more senior someone is - that timeline extends
ie, a VP or C level person is still relatively “fresh” after 6 months to a year.
Seeing “change agent” in a LinkedIn profile sounds fluffy at first glance, but it catches my attention. It’s more tactical, but dive into their profile more. This one has been gold for me in practice. I can’t guarantee that it will always pan out, but it’s worth a shot to explore more and engage.
Research (and what to validate)
What else is happening in the org?
You can do this via discovery or reading industry specific news articles, I use Perplexity to surface these items easier.
Are there several new product launches or has something gone completely wrong?
Is there news that very senior executives are making drastic changes like undergoing transformation or restructuring?
I recently had two discovery calls which both prompted outreach because of signals using 6sense and past customer usage/exposure. These discovery calls allowed me to validate what was happening in the org but also go layers deeper as to why this change was happening.
Both of these conversations are leading to pilot discussions that should help drive very meaningful revenue. Assuming of course we get the go ahead and execute on initial phases.
*Knock on wood* though, cause … sales. IFYFK.
Initial calls are structured with discovery frameworks in mind. The key takeaway is that it’s not necessarily selling - it’s simply finding and guiding buyers on how to execute against these initiatives.
Multi -Threading in Ahead of Pilots
Here’s where I’ve been getting into actual implementation of tactics discussed in my last post, Data to Dialogue. Here are some of the steps I’ve been taking to leverage my network and executive sponsors on my team:
I map out all job descriptions, key personas, business units and “guess-timates” on decision makers and org structure using Miro. This allows me to quickly telegraph to in senior executives on my team, even marketing, to help facilitate outreach in a strategic way to drive awareness and begin dialogue with an organization.
A big thanks to Matt Harney at SaaSLetter who introduced me to Poggio.Ai. It should help cut down a tremendous amount of time on account research. Highly recommend signing up for his newsletter- not just for the great content on the SaaS industry, but to get updates on his upcoming podcast with the founder of Poggio, Matt Slotnick.
There’s no asks at this point, simply awareness and being human. I’ve literally used Jason Bay’s template:
“Hi (Name),
Reaching out as I’ve been working with some members of your team and thought I’d introduce myself. We’re in exploratory discussions around (xyz initiatives) - thought I’d keeping you in the loop and can provide updates on how things progress.
If you have any questions, let me know but no response necessary.
Andrew K
I’m using this and drafting templates for high up executives on my team to engage in dialogue with. I also set up Slack channels so that I can provide LinkedIn profiles if I can’t see Teamlink connections so that I have my executive network supporting me if they can.
This not only protects downside for an early opportunity but protects me as a seller. It’s not just one person going it alone, it’s multiple minds. And if deal is lost, we lost as a team. The upside? Faster trajectory in a sales cycle.
I’m aware that some of you reading this might not have all this at your disposal but the principles will still apply, be it smaller enterprises or wider accounts to cover (ie pure new business). Awareness early on is key and you can still approach key contacts with this type of language. Do this early and don’t overthink it. You’re just bringing awareness to something that can help and you’re not asking for anything. You can cash in on this later on in the sales cycle.
If you have any questions on these approaches, feel free to shoot a DM to askobylarz on X or an email to andrew@hackingsales.xyz.
As always, thanks for reading and see you all next week.
-Andrew K