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

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1. 3:00

   nine times out of 10, I'm just not going to do it at all. That's how I guide it. The third takeaway is know your opportunity CSFs. 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?

   In Buying process discovery

2. 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

3. 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

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 Discovery and qualification

5. 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

6. 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

7. 21:40

   We are going to give you X, Y, and Z, which are going to be different than what these companies are doing, okay? It's not about bashing them or saying that you're better or they do things crappy. It's about we have these unique differentiators that are basically the only ones in the market that actually can do that. “So if you come and show them why you're different, what's different, how it's different, and” you educate them, the key is that you never bash your competition and you come in objectively showing the key differences. I like to use Forrester or Gartner. I like to use objective, neutral industry case studies to show, hey, we do this really well and here's our strengths. Again, I'm fortunate where I work with an industry leader and I can go and most of the

   In Competitive differentiation

8. 25:00

   your control, for example, like a board meeting that's coming up or like an internal meeting that they have to get the approval, let go and keep working. Keep your business moving forward. People stop working, and they start circling, and that only hurts them for future months. So I try to be very consistent every year because I'm always working, and I know that what I've done is in advancement of these deals. “If I'm at a point where I can't do anymore, I let go and I let the deal play its course.” You can't smother and you can't run circles around deals, it's just going to hurt you in the long run. Beautiful. Ian, anything you want to plug before we jump off here? Yes, I'm plugging my coaching program because this will be launched very, very soon. Go to IanKoniak.com if you are a top enterprise sales performer or good enterprise or even

   In Hand-off to sales

9. 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

10. 27:05

    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. And that brings us to number three, when you do go over their head, make sure that you do not bash your original champion, say nothing but good things about them because the moment

    In Multi-threaded prospecting

11. 27:49

    And then lastly, number four, share your point of view on the problems you could potentially solve for an executive. But then once you hear the problem, don't stop and say, great, we can solve it. Ask three or four more questions. When do you need to do that? How many employees are affected? Do you think there's a risk of turnover? “And so take that initial trend with three or four more questions and resist the urge” to pitch early. Ari and Nick, those are our four, where can people help us? Well, audience, would you like to hear me and Armand breaking down best practices for discovery, for texting and sales, or for using video with your prospects? You are in luck. In the show notes, we've partnered with a number of our sponsors to do mini playbooks

    In Cold-call discovery questions