Trading items of unequal value (David Priemer, Founder @ Cerebral Selling)

Description

Listen

Quoted on this wiki

Every place a page here uses this source, in the order the words come in it.

1. 7:15

   multi-year agreements and we're actually going to pay you more commission. We need to optimize for this other product that's new. We want to sell more of it and we're going to pay you an accelerator. Oh, you know what? We had a tough Q3. We want to have a big Q4. I'll tell you what, double ACV, you know, a quota credit, you know, in Q4. And so I basically have to look at what “my comp plan tells me. It's basically what my organization is telling me is important to achieve” my goal and then optimize towards that. All right. And so let's say my organization tells me that I'm optimizing towards ARR, right? So basically just the annual subscription value

   In Compensation and quotas

2. 7:15

   multi-year agreements and we're actually going to pay you more commission. We need to optimize for this other product that's new. We want to sell more of it and we're going to pay you an accelerator. Oh, you know what? We had a tough Q3. We want to have a big Q4. I'll tell you what, double ACV, you know, a quota credit, you know, in Q4. And so I basically have to look at what “my comp plan tells me. It's basically what my organization is telling me is important to achieve” my goal and then optimize towards that. All right. And so let's say my organization tells me that I'm optimizing towards ARR, right? So basically just the annual subscription value

   In SDR incentive metrics

3. 14:11

   reason I ask is because, by the way, the reason I ask is because I don't want to line up all of these things and, you know, take my customer's time and, you know, we respect them as we would respect you and your customer. And I just want to make sure that if there's something that's more important for us to do before the reference request, that we get that out now, because, you know, oftentimes there are things that we need to do. “So anyways, timeline, I want to understand my way to the finish line before I start agreeing” to anything. So what you're doing there, it's actually, Armand, we talk about, like, no unilateral concessions or the rule of reciprocity. You're giving a give. When you give somebody a reference, it's a give, and that gives you then the right to get something back, whether it's more clarity into, like, what happens next.

   In Discovery and qualification

4. 15:25

   level thing, sometimes I end up negotiating with somebody who they don't have full authority. And so how do I like navigate a situation like that? Well, there's, first of all, there's actually lots to be gained by negotiating people with without the authority to grant the concession, because they can usually give you information, “you can usually kind of bring them, you know, into the bosom and get insight from them into” like, well, what happens next? But I would say yes. Like the challenge is if you're negotiating with someone who is telling, the worst is when they tell you they have the authority to do it and you know that they don't, right? But the idea is that you don't want to necessarily, you know, give the full commit until you know that this thing could be done or you've, you know, you looked in the whites of the eyes of the decision maker.

   In Multi-threaded prospecting

5. 15:25

   level thing, sometimes I end up negotiating with somebody who they don't have full authority. And so how do I like navigate a situation like that? Well, there's, first of all, there's actually lots to be gained by negotiating people with without the authority to grant the concession, because they can usually give you information, “you can usually kind of bring them, you know, into the bosom and get insight from them into” like, well, what happens next? But I would say yes. Like the challenge is if you're negotiating with someone who is telling, the worst is when they tell you they have the authority to do it and you know that they don't, right? But the idea is that you don't want to necessarily, you know, give the full commit until you know that this thing could be done or you've, you know, you looked in the whites of the eyes of the decision maker.

   In Referral routing and stakeholder mapping

6. 16:13

   name discounts. Like if they say we want a 30% discount, you could say, hey, look, you know, as we're talking about discounts, one of the things that's going to happen when I go back and internally in my organizations, they're going to say like, what's the process, right, to get this thing buttoned up. So I'm just out of curiosity in your organization, like, what is, what does that look like? “Is there anyone else that needs to kind of sign off?” Also, by the way, don't assume, because I've been bitten by this many times in my sales career, don't assume that that person even knows what the process is internally at their own organization, right? I've had situations where we were doing a 75K AR deal at Salesforce, and the executive

   In Buying process discovery

7. 17:06

   So when you're negotiating with someone who doesn't have full authority, use, I say use them in the best possible way, just like they're using you to get more information about the organization, what the signing process looks like before you make these big commitments. Well, what you're doing is actually really, really smart. I do all of that stuff early in the process, too. “Like, when you're still selling the deal, you should be, if you know there's a mandatory” step to get a deal done, and I don't know what software doesn't need a security review, you should be presenting those things. And if I think about my sales process, there's like two or three, every single time somebody goes through their evaluation, they have to have those meetings. And when you present those things, hey, usually folks want to make sure that this thing is

   In Co-selling opportunity management

8. 20:11

   does procurement come through and always ask for like an extra five or 10%? Or like when you go up to the CFO, are they going to always ask for a five or 10%? Because what I don't want to do, Armand. I don't want to be on the wall of my company and give you our best offer and then have you come back and say, oh we need another 5% because I'm not going to have any room to go at that point. “So, getting as much insight into that process in advance would be super helpful.” Do you have any insight into that? So, what am I doing? I'm asking for information but I'm also telling you, okay, if I don't have this information, here's the problem that's going to occur later on. I always like, again, it's funny, we're not trying to cozy up to the customer.

   In Buying process discovery

9. 20:41

   here's the problem that's going to occur later on. I always like, again, it's funny, we're not trying to cozy up to the customer. We are actually trying to help each other in this situation and to the extent I can just ask what that process might look like. And again, don't assume that they know. “Maybe the thing they're buying now has never been through a procurement process before.” Now, it's like the first time. Can you check? The reason I ask is because I don't want to find ourselves in this tough bind a week from now where none of us have flexibility. I've seen this happen. It's problematic. Well, this goes back to the concept of educating your buyers.

   In Buying process discovery

10. 21:38

    flesh and it's one cut and done? And then they'll be like, oh, shoot, like I don't want the person who's held accountable across the organization for making the one cut if my one cut wasn't good enough. And you can actually talk them off the ledge by educating them and then get them on the same side of the table. “So it's you and your buyer against their procurement team, not the other way around.” I'm smiling because we actually used to use that from, I guess, from a hiring and promotion standpoint, right? So Arman comes to me and says, hey, David, I've been doing really doing well on the floor and I'm at quota. Do you think, you know, would I be up for a raise or promotion? Can I get an extra couple grand a year or whatever it is? And I say, look, Arman, here's the thing.

    In Blocker and detractor mapping