Breaking down negotiation tactics against every type of buyer persona (Morgan Melo, Sales @ Pave)

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1. 1:46

   We start every single episode with your top three actionable takeaways. Let's get your three. Well, thanks, Nick. Yeah. So number one, bring hypotheses both about your buyer and the company that you're meeting with to your discos so that you can cut through a lot of the noise. Basically that means like you should know some of the buying triggers that are out there, “both on the persona level and on the company level.” It's okay to make assumptions like we do that in outbound. We should also do that in discovery to get to the point. If you're wrong, it's not the end of the world. They'll probably tell you what is the right answer. Beautiful. What's number two? Yeah, number two. My style of selling is pretty consultative, I would say. And so number two is sort of in that vein.

   In Buying signals and triggers

2. 2:16

   They'll probably tell you what is the right answer. Beautiful. What's number two? Yeah, number two. My style of selling is pretty consultative, I would say. And so number two is sort of in that vein. Ask questions with embedded experience so that you can establish yourself as credible. That usually looks something like, hey, normally I see folks doing X, Y, or Z. “Are you one of those buckets or do you do something a little bit more bespoke versus” the traditional, tell me about your process? Very nice, Morgan. Round us out. What's number three? Sure. Yeah, this is my favorite one. So when a customer asks you for a discount, laugh at them. People just like to ask. And so sometimes I find if you can laugh, you can usually either get away with no discount or there's a whole lot of other ways that you can go.

   In Needs-based segmentation

3. 3:14

   You just raised a round. And so my guess is you're trying to do your valuation on this date. How can I help you with that? My guess is you're being a little bit more slick than that. And so when is the right time or how do I actually weave in these hypotheses, questions into my discovery process? Sure. There's definitely a wrong way to do this, to your point. “Definitely I always start my calls trying to get a feel of why they took the call if” I don't know already. Even if I already sort of know, I will regurgitate why I think they took the call and confirm if that is correct. And then oftentimes with sort of what they tell me is the reason why they took the call. Usually I can have some sort of buying trigger that I identified as part of my research that

   In Discovery and qualification

4. 5:39

   X, Y, or Z, or normally people that are doing that, we sort of help them by doing this and then ask another question. So I think you don't have to ask all questions, first of all. Sometimes some of the most green discos I've watched, it's just question after question after question after question, and it's brutal. “And so I think you have to have a mix of asking questions and giving information.” Sometimes that's giving information about processes. Sometimes that's giving information about what the product does. Armand, probably what you're referring to is I'm never really one to give this pitch per se about any product that I'm selling. I like to sort of weave it in here and there and then sum it up toward the end versus waiting

   In Discovery meeting structure

5. 11:32

   reaction at this point let's say I'm like Morgan that's like insanely expensive I was expecting you said 80k I thought it was going to be 50k like what's the deal here how do I deal with that situation where someone's just anchoring me super low sure yeah kind of a complex question because “if you've sort of done your discovery process correctly you should have a general feel like” your spidey senses should be relatively in line to know whether or not they're going to be that sort of person that's going to try to low ball you off the bat and so I think what you actually need to figure out and knowing your persona knowing their buying process will help you get

   In Buying process discovery

6. 11:48

   if you've sort of done your discovery process correctly you should have a general feel like your spidey senses should be relatively in line to know whether or not they're going to be that sort of person that's going to try to low ball you off the bat and so I think what you actually “need to figure out and knowing your persona knowing their buying process will help you get” there is trying to figure out sort of what their objective is in beating you up on price and the way that I've kind of put it into sort of three different buckets if you will one is like the people that just want to discount Armand I think you're one of those people you just want to walk away as a winner I get it it's fine there's always going to be those people I can work with those

   In Buyer and user personas

7. 12:38

   cycle and the other product happens to be one third of the cost of your product been there it's another thing we can work on and that's a different strategy probably the bucket is just that they actually have like a defined budget and oftentimes that's when you're working with “a maybe slightly below the line person that was given a very specific budget and a very specific” objective to go find a tool to solve a problem and that's probably the trickiest one because you actually sort of have a mold that you have to fit into so not to question your question but sort of if that's the type of person I think first like what type of bucket would they fall in and then

   In Economic buyer identification

8. 16:58

   if I can get you that discount? And if you're like, oh, I can move right away. Great, then I'm going to start actioning on that right away. And if timeline isn't something, then you can use other levers. One that I really like to use sometimes is something that's going to be a huge pain for the prospect. Like, oh, yeah, happy to give you 10% off. “We actually have a referral program for that. So all I need is for you to introduce me to” two other prospects that would love to use our product. They don't have to sign up for anything like that. It's like a timeshare, but just like make the intro. And then I can give you that discount to get you going. Does that work? I like to use that when they have a quick timeline, because then they're not going to want to do all this work before they want to get going. And eventually, they're just like, ah, forget it. I'll just pay the

   In Referral incentive models

9. 24:30

   my guess is you have to like do a little roadshow and sell this internally. And you probably want some collateral to do that. So you look like you really did your homework. I can put together a preliminary deck that sort of summarizes like the main things we talked about, what the sort of products are, what implementation looks like, other customers, all that kind of stuff. “What else do you think would be helpful to see in that deck that would help you sell this” internally? And then I set up a time where for 30 minutes and I make it a Google slides deck or whatever that they can edit. And we kind of jam on it together. And we talk about how they're going to sell it internally. You listen very carefully because the way that they're going to sell it internally is the way that their internal buyers and that your ultimate decision

   In Champion identification

10. 24:48

    What else do you think would be helpful to see in that deck that would help you sell this internally? And then I set up a time where for 30 minutes and I make it a Google slides deck or whatever that they can edit. And we kind of jam on it together. And we talk about how they're going to sell it internally. You listen very carefully because the way that they're going “to sell it internally is the way that their internal buyers and that your ultimate decision” maker, that's what they really care about. Morgan, this has been a phenomenal episode. I used to think I would never want to. Negotiate against Arman more than anybody in the world, and you have now taken his place at the top of the hill as the person I don't want to negotiate against, but I won't negotiate with you. I'm going to instead just ask you the final question. Final question is this.

    In Champion identification

11. 25:39

    I want to ask about what's one bad habit that you see a lot of salespeople exhibiting that you think they need to stop doing because it hurts them more than it helps. One thing that I've seen a lot of very green reps do in an effort to build rapport, I think, is ask the prospect, what is your role? Horrible. Horrible. I hate that question. “It's very important to understand how that person touches the process, but you should” ask it in a way that we've talked about already, which is something like, hey, Arman, saw your sales at Pave. My guess is at an early stage of startup, that can mean a whole lot of things. I'm curious what falls under your plate today, and especially as it relates to this product. Beautiful. Morgan, anything you want to plug before we jump off here? Sure.

    In Buying process discovery

12. 25:49

    is ask the prospect, what is your role? Horrible. Horrible. I hate that question. It's very important to understand how that person touches the process, but you should ask it in a way that we've talked about already, which is something like, hey, Arman, saw your sales at Pave. “My guess is at an early stage of startup, that can mean a whole lot of things.” I'm curious what falls under your plate today, and especially as it relates to this product. Beautiful. Morgan, anything you want to plug before we jump off here? Sure. Yeah. We're building a killer sales org over at Pave, and we have a very non-traditional way of selling, if you haven't noticed, by the way, we talked about it on this episode. We're looking for great mid-market reps.

    In Team and roles