1:03

Ever been confronted with an inconsistent

1:05

or confusing prospect, but not

1:08

sure exactly how to react. Kenan

1:10

has four of his favorite words

1:12

in his book gap selling that

1:14

will help you get into a tough conversation

1:17

that's so needed.

1:25

[inaudible]

1:25

welcome to the bite size sales podcast

1:28

where we believe that sales is

1:30

the most important team and a B2B company,

1:33

that the sales team deserves great sales

1:35

skills training but usually doesn't get

1:38

it and that taking bite-size

1:40

steps each day to get better at your craft

1:42

is the best way to improve results.

1:45

I am your host, Andrew Monahan , and I'm using

1:47

my experiences in B2B sales

1:50

to bring you simple actionable ideas

1:52

every day to help you get better

2:00

[inaudible] .

2:00

One of the common problems I hear from

2:02

sellers but also from managers

2:05

and leaders is around

2:07

the pace of deals

2:09

or probably more accurately the lack

2:12

of pace of deal. Deal momentum

2:15

is being a challenge with

2:17

almost every company I've worked with over the

2:20

last few years and also when I was running sales teams

2:22

as well. You know, I, I don't

2:24

even thinking back, I don't think I know

2:27

any team that's selling

2:29

deals of any real significant size

2:31

who claimed to be really happy with their speed

2:34

of the deal cycle, the sales cycle,

2:37

you know, they just don't seem to go as fast

2:39

as we want to. There's always things

2:41

that seem to slow them down and it

2:43

causes problems. It causes problems with

2:47

forecasting, it causes problems with delivering

2:49

on our promises. It causes

2:52

problems with our own goals, things like that.

2:54

There's lots of downstream impacts

2:56

about slow deals. So

2:59

anything that we can do to

3:01

speed things up or just

3:03

try and improve things a little bit can

3:06

have a big difference in terms of our results.

3:09

And there's lots of reasons why deals

3:11

are slow and it's going to vary a little bit

3:13

from organization to organization

3:16

and prospect prospect about

3:18

what the root cause is. But also

3:20

there's some common things that happen again and

3:22

again. In fact, the challenger customer

3:25

, uh , the book that came out and the research that

3:27

was done , um, after

3:29

, uh, the challenger sale , um,

3:31

talks about this, it talks about the,

3:34

the, the big problem in the selling

3:36

world where we're trying to get one

3:39

person to get a whole bunch of people

3:41

on board with the change that has to happen.

3:44

And this is where a deal is dies, where a deal

3:46

is slow down . It's a , it's a big step.

3:49

You know, when I think about when I talk to people

3:51

these days , uh, one

3:53

of the challenges people do come up with a lot

3:55

is they sense confusion

3:58

and in consistencies

4:00

with what the says,

4:03

right? It might be just that the prospect

4:05

not entirely sure themselves about

4:07

all the different things are going on. And when they speak

4:10

to us, they, they say things that they're

4:12

not entirely sure about and they seem to contradict each

4:14

other and things like that. But also there's an inconsistency

4:17

is right. They might be telling us things that we want to

4:19

hear and they say that in the meeting,

4:21

but then go and do something differently

4:24

afterwards. Or maybe when they let

4:26

their guard down a little bit and

4:28

uh, you know, the inconsistency is come home to roost

4:31

a little bit and you can sit there and go, well that's weird

4:33

because half an hour ago they said something completely

4:35

different. So these things do

4:38

come up in the course of conversations, but

4:40

it can be challenging to call it out

4:42

, right? We feel often that this is a , a

4:44

tough conversation if you're

4:47

early in your relationship . So this is a conversation,

4:49

the first call and the discovery call,

4:51

a second call, you know, it can feel

4:54

a little bit challenging to say, you know, this

4:56

is not right. There's something going on here. I'm , you know,

4:58

you're not saying something that seems to be consistent.

5:01

So, but this is not something that we could

5:03

ignore. We can't just let it go by

5:05

because that's where, you know , we'll

5:07

get affected downstream . Right? Further

5:09

down the sales cycle when there is that lack of clarity

5:12

that will come home to roost and

5:14

deals, you know, slow down and fall

5:16

apart and you know, visions

5:19

become less clear. But what's supposed to happen?

5:21

So taking control of

5:23

this situation earlier rather

5:25

than later is at least going to help

5:28

avoid some of those slowdowns

5:30

that might come from these ins consistencies.

5:32

So they might avoid some of the misunderstandings

5:35

that we might have about what's important and not important

5:37

to prospects. So how do you have

5:39

that conversation? What's the way to get

5:41

into that? And in his

5:44

book gap selling, Keenan actually

5:46

addresses this. He has it under

5:48

a section that he as she calls

5:50

my four favorite words. So

5:53

let me read directly from the book. There's

5:56

a reason I suggested you challenge

5:58

your buyers starting with the words.

6:01

I'm confused. You said

6:04

those four words in that order

6:07

are four of my favorites. They are powerful.

6:10

I love using them to challenge buyers

6:12

and prospects, which is exactly

6:14

what you need to do when you spot inconsistencies

6:17

between what buyers say they want

6:19

in their future state and the methods,

6:21

approaches and decision criteria that they're using

6:23

to get there. Your ability to identify,

6:26

call out or resolve these

6:28

inconsistencies is a measure

6:30

of the added value you bring as

6:32

a salesperson. You need to get good

6:35

at it. It's not always easy.

6:37

Challenging your customers without tact.

6:40

Diplomacy or grace can

6:42

make them feel incompetent and attentive

6:44

or insecure, which is not conducive

6:47

to the collaborative, enthusiastic mindset

6:50

you want your customer to have when you're

6:52

gap selling. No one likes to

6:54

be called out for their mistakes, but sometimes

6:56

you have to do it. A doctor would never

6:59

continue ineffective treatments just

7:01

because letting patients know it

7:03

wasn't working would be embarrassing.

7:05

Seeing applies hears by

7:08

prefacing your challenge with, I'm

7:10

confused. You said you

7:13

give buyers away to save face.

7:16

Those two words suggest you're

7:18

inviting discussion, not

7:21

indicting them or attacking them for being wrong.

7:23

I'm confused or maybe

7:25

I was under the impression or I

7:27

thought allows for the possibility

7:30

that the mistake is yours. This

7:32

gives you leeway to encourage introspection

7:35

instead of defensiveness and

7:37

to engage in a discussion rather

7:40

than a debate. Learning to identify

7:42

inconsistencies between what buyers say

7:44

they want and the decisions that they

7:46

make is critical to gap selling

7:49

and moving deals forward. Starting

7:51

with, I'm confused. You

7:53

said before, listen , the inconsistencies

7:57

or discrepancies you find confusing

7:59

is one of the best ways to disarm your

8:01

prospect. Invite a discussion

8:04

and resolve problems before they start.

8:08

So that's right from the book. And to

8:10

me this is a super simple

8:12

way to softly get

8:14

into what can be quite a tough conversation.

8:17

You know, one of the things that , uh, I think

8:20

it says in there if people might get defensive or

8:22

they might even get angry with you

8:24

for calling if they feel like you're calling

8:26

them at , right? So how you go about

8:28

this has to be done carefully.

8:31

And what I like about it as well is it puts

8:33

the idea on the table that

8:35

the weakness , uh , the thing that's

8:37

missing might be on you, not

8:40

on them. Even

8:42

though in reality the way is happening

8:44

is you're essentially calling them up , but , but

8:47

doing in a very polite and very positive

8:49

way. And it does

8:52

get you into a much needed

8:54

and important conversation, especially

8:57

if this is early on in the sales cycle where you don't

8:59

want, you know , you're to pass to the verge

9:01

, then can, you're on the same page as them. So

9:03

the question is, you know, how do you, how

9:06

do you use this? How do you make it a habit? We

9:08

can use our habit forming

9:10

formula , um,

9:12

which goes, you know, when you hear

9:15

in consistencies or confusion

9:17

for the customer is saying, instead

9:20

of avoiding a conversation or instead of

9:22

avoiding having the

9:24

discussion and asking them questions, I

9:27

will say I'm confused

9:30

you said, and then lead that

9:32

into a discussion that needs to be had.

9:41

[inaudible]

9:41

if you liked this episode, please

9:43

share it wide and far spread

9:46

the word. I get energy from

9:48

seeing people download and use this

9:50

content. So please just take 20 seconds

9:52

to share with anyone you think would like

9:54

it to

9:58

[inaudible]

10:02

the episode is sponsored by unstoppable

10:05

dot du . Most sales

10:07

teams are not trained effectively in the

10:09

skills and mindset they deserve. And

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these are the most important people in the company.

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It's no wonder that only about 50%

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of reps make quarter every year. Unstoppable

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is a service that helps sellers and

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leaders get great at the skills

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and mindset they need without

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taking time out of the field. It

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exists because if the sales team

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has the right skills and

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mindset, they thrive. They are confident,

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and they perform much better. Find

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out more and even get a free sales

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[email protected]

10:48

[inaudible]

10:48

no. To wrap up as Chad Boyer,

10:50

a VP of sales at [inaudible] instinct

10:53

may or may not have one set training

10:56

with our implementation is just entertainment

10:59

and preparer entertainment when Monaghan does it.

11:02

So make sure you take action on what

11:04

you learn and keep getting better every day. This

11:07

world does not need more sales BS,

11:09

so don't create any more . Be great

11:11

at the fundamentals. Be honest, be

11:13

real. Be yourself. Just do

11:15

not be us . And

11:17

finally, I'm setting off as the great Joe

11:20

Sexton would by saying, gone to sell

11:25

[inaudible] .