Getting to power with the right deals, at the right time (Ian Koniak, Founder of Ian Koniak Sales Training)

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1. 3:10

   CSF is critical success factors. Every company is different. Every product and service is different. If you're selling a complex product, you need to know what causes an opportunity to close. In Salesforce, there's several CSFs that we use. “Is there a compelling event?” Do we know why someone needs to change and what is happening right now in their business that's requiring them to buy your product or service? Are we at power? Have we developed a business case and shown the ROI and have we engaged an implementation

   In Cold-call qualification questions

2. 4:55

   into the accounts with me, the Slack AE, the MuleSoft AE, the Tableau AE. What I'm doing when I'm in that report is I'm filtering it to look at the largest deals and then I'm looking at those CSFs I'm on and I'm saying, okay, when was the last time we met with them? Are we at power? “What's the highest level we've met with?” Why do they need to change? Why are they buying this? and most importantly what happens if they don't buy anything? What is the cost of staying the same? Have we quantified the cost? Do we know what's going to happen? What's really driving them to want to move forward? And if the answer to any of those is no, we don't have that information, we don't know why they're

   In Stakeholder and champion discovery

3. 5:10

   we met with them? Are we at power? What's the highest level we've met with? Why do they need to change? Why are they buying this? and most importantly what happens if they don't buy anything? What is the cost of staying the same? Have we quantified the cost? Do we know what's going to happen? “What's really driving them to want to move forward? And if the answer to any of” those is no, we don't have that information, we don't know why they're buying, we just know hey they called us, they want to evaluate, to look at other options, then I said well we need to connect with power, we need to get the root of what is really driving this and what's going to cost them if they don't make a decision and if they don't do anything? Because our biggest enemy is

   In Discovery and qualification

4. 5:45

   make a decision and if they don't do anything? Because our biggest enemy is status quo, right? We're not losing to other competitors most of the time, we're losing to them doing nothing and so I think the most important simple advice I'd give you Armand is when you're looking at a lot of deals, you got to look at the biggest ones first, it's not about winning all of them, it's about “winning the right ones, okay? Number two is we need to make sure that the right” ones are qualified and that we're engaged in one of their top priorities, one of their key initiatives. If we can't map to something that they've said at the C-suite or high up is really important, then it's probably not going to take priority and the only way you're ever going to find that out or get that

   In Prospecting

5. 18:58

   I mean, it closed within two months versus I had been spinning my wheels for six or seven months with this other guy before. So when power is engaged, things move quickly. And when it's mapped to a priority, things move quickly. So those are kind of the two things that I really try and dig in on. And you've got to come prepared. You've got to know your product and why you're pitching and how it's going to help them. “And what I come prepared with is the business impact and the current situation.” So a lot of the conversation, Armand, was about here's what's going on in the field. Because sometimes these executives don't even know how things are broken. They think they're fine. Things get filtered by the time they get up to them. So I said, you guys have five intranets. You have 30 systems that you're trying to consolidate. You have employees that take two months to onboard. And he was like, oh my God.

   In Problem and impact discovery

6. 26:55

   surface real risk and get deals moving again, and you can get it for free at the link in the show notes. Your top four takeaways from the episode with Ian Koniak include number one, when you're stuck in a competitive situation, it's not always us versus them. Step number one is either way, you should do it. “Step number two is clearly explain this is where we're different, X, Y, and Z.” Number two, your champion is innocent until proven guilty. And so here's the thing, don't go over your champion's head right away, but the moment your deal starts to slow down or information isn't properly being relayed to the executives that you need to get in front of, you can now go over their head.

   In Competitive differentiation

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