Why Aligning on the Problem First is the Solution
Real World Example and Learnings from my day to day
As a quick reminder, if you’re an AE or startup founder - I’m launching a beta program designed to help develop unique POV’s for more effective outbound campaigns using AI.
Sign up for the waitlist here to get more info.
In other announcements, moving forward, I’ll be posting on Saturday mornings so keep your eyes peeled for new posts then!
The biggest challenge in the sales cycles today has less to do with the sales person and more to do with the buyer experience. There’s always a focus on sales methodologies and running a good sales process.
With anything in life however, people tend to be the messiest variable in almost any equation. When it comes to sales, that variable is your buyer(s). It’s not a complaint or knock, just a factual observation of the reality of sales.
There can be a way to meet in the middle. It mostly has to do with improving the buyer experience. Today I wanted to share some realizations I came across with recent experiences in my full time role around ways to improve the buyer experience that after application, netted out results.
Being Prescriptive
Relationship Building
Aligning on the Problem & Real World Example
Being Prescriptive
Last week our team gathered to meet in person for our QBR’s. Admittedly, I miss the in person environment and it’s extremely helpful when you have everyone sharing ideas and feedback in real time.
Amidst a lot of great learnings, the one that really stuck out was being prescriptive. A lot of options, although helpful in theory, result in no decision making at best. Worse, no confidence in your expertise to guide a prospect to a solution.
Better to be prescriptive based on what you know, the research you’ve done, and what you learn throughout the course of a discovery conversation with your prospect. GIVE them the recommendation on what’s best to do INSTEAD of options.
In a recent podcast with John Barrows and Jen-Allen Knuth, there was some interesting takeaways around being prescriptive. The one that really hit home was the story around a mason contractor who just provided two options based on preferences and then gave estimates on the work.
John mentioned he spent MORE money with that person than the one who was less expensive, Their recommendation was to find the stones at the store himself. Although cheaper, it’s just more to effort and time to filter through decisions you don’t know much about to begin with. That’s why we’re asking the experts right?
It’s relevant because in SaaS, we know prospects are busy. And although they have to do some work to solve a problem, why add more to their plate? From first touch to implementation, to paper process, stop making your prospects think.
Amidst a plethora of options you can potentially provide your customers, it’s better to provide less rather than more to try to close the deal. You’ll most likely build trust and get questions that will help you pivot based on feedback and the solution.
Be the expert, make it easy.
Which brings me to my next realization on relationship building:
Relationship Building
It’s pretty evident that the days of the gregarious, flashy, and pushy sales person are long gone. When I say “relationship building” it has a lot more do with building trust equity rather than being “likable”. Starting off smaller to build trust inevitably increases dollar value over time.
This is why landing net new deals are almost always not as large as the total value of the relationship over time. With every single dollar being scrutinized in today’s economy, why not get a small win that you can execute, prove value, and use that to snowball to an even bigger one?
Outside of helping you build trust, you’ll uncover a lot more about a prospect’s problems by being comfortable with slowing down.
Problem Alignment
If no one agrees there’s a problem, then why find a solution? In the early stages of development it’s critical you have everyone aligning and agree there is in fact, a problem to solve. It seems obvious but wanted to share a real world example of how I made this error.
I recently had a deal that was forecasted for May and at the last minute received a note that the client had to press pause for the next couple of weeks. There may still be a chance at this closing this but definitely not in May. A younger me might have pushed for the sale, instead I re-positioned this into a positive.
I won’t share the customer note but I’ll provide context and my response:
Context:
Outside of pressing pause, this update was provided following a recent (client) team meeting
There’s other stakeholders involved, some newer to the org, some not, but friction internally nonetheless.
What’s clear is that we don’t have problem alignment across the department
My response below:
You’ll notice I acknowledged I was disappointed BUT flipped the sentiment to being positive - which helps build trust equity. This gives me an opportunity to dig deeper, which I was able to do over a recent call this past Wednesday. I’ve also established other key DM’s and have meetings lined up to address concerns and make sure everyone is aligned.
More importantly, I was blindsided from this note. Now I can double down on how to execute without any surprises. In the end, it benefits the BOTH of us to start off a commercial relationship in a meaningful way, while helping navigate bureaucracy and incumbents.
I received a response in 3 minutes:
“Agree with all your points, I’m open this time”
Will I win the deal?
Truthfully, I don’t know. But I now have the opportunity, inadvertently, to slow down and really probe more for the pain and the drivers behind getting started. Along with the value we can provide.
Will keep you all posted.
As always, thanks for reading and see you all next SATURDAY. If you have any questions or thoughts, shoot me a DM or email andrew.kobylarz@hackingsales.xyz.
-Andrew K
PS - if you liked this article, feel free to give a “like”, “comment”, or “share” with your network.
And lastly, a quick reminder, if you’re an AE or startup founder - I’m launching a beta program designed to help develop unique POV’s for more effective outbound campaigns.
Sign up for the waitlist here to get more info.