Applying medical device sales techniques to SaaS selling (Katie Mullen, CEO @ MMS Consulting LLC)

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1. 2:16

   So I'm a big fan of using silence when you talk to somebody on the phone. And what I mean by that is I've done a lot of customer research and obviously done a ton of calls on my own. And what I find works really well and what customers really love is when you just simply introduce yourself and you give them an opportunity to get off the phone if they need to. Now, that doesn't mean that you're losing this opportunity to get to them. “What it means is that if they are busy, you really do need to let them off the phone.” It's one of their pet peeves when somebody just drones on and on and on. So one of my favorite openers is just to say, hi, my name is Katie Mullen. I'm calling from whatever company and just silence and let them lead the conversation from there. They might be like, hi, how are you? And then, you know, it's going to be a fairly friendly conversation.

   In Phone objection handling

2. 4:19

   I do it always as a follow-up and you've got to upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. There's all kinds of services. So I would do it through that way as a second, third follow-up, that kind of thing. And then my last actionable tip is regarding subject lines. The shorter the subject line, the better. There's tons of data and research out there on this sales loft and others. I've done my own research on it. “If you can even get a one word subject line that works best, some of the ones that I like” best are just follow-up, but it actually has to be a follow-up. You actually have to have reached out to them already in some way, whether it's LinkedIn or video, I'm sorry, or a phone or email. And then so it's that way, it's honest. You honestly are doing a follow-up. So those are my three actionable tips. Right on. All righty.

   In Subject line length and formatting

3. 4:23

   So I would do it through that way as a second, third follow-up, that kind of thing. And then my last actionable tip is regarding subject lines. The shorter the subject line, the better. There's tons of data and research out there on this sales loft and others. I've done my own research on it. If you can even get a one word subject line that works best, some of the ones that I like “best are just follow-up, but it actually has to be a follow-up.” You actually have to have reached out to them already in some way, whether it's LinkedIn or video, I'm sorry, or a phone or email. And then so it's that way, it's honest. You honestly are doing a follow-up. So those are my three actionable tips. Right on. All righty. We haven't talked about cold calling in a minute.

   In Subject line formats

4. 8:07

   Or are they old monitors? Or are you thinking you're going to be changing them soon? I say, are they working out pretty well for you? Because again, they like to do the opposite. So if you say, are, is that working out pretty well for you? Often they will say, not really, you know, they're, they're fine, but you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then use that silence. “Do not interject and say, oh, that's so great because ours actually don't do that.” Or, you know, we've had really great luck with that. You just absolutely let them fill that silence and get, and you're busy taking notes the whole time they're talking, because then they're arming you with all the information that you're going to need later to get that deal. And what happens in the other situation? Because I get people all the time where they're like, it's fine.

   In Problem and impact discovery

5. 9:04

   And again, I try to be very subtle with that. I like the word ever, because it's not like, is battery life a big issue for you? No, not really. Is battery life ever an issue for you? And it gets those cogs going. So they're thinking to themselves, you know, yeah, actually we did have somebody complain about the batteries just last week about that. “And if they say no, batteries aren't an issue, then I move on to the next one.” Oh, really? Well, what about, you know, blah, blah, blah. And then I continue with those wedge questions where I'm not just going in guns blazing and saying, well, our battery life is so much better than your competitor. I'm finding out what's actually important to them. And so this is one thing that a lot of people tend to screw up is they feel like they need to talk to handle objections.

   In Lack-of-need objections

6. 12:18

   You've got to really come up with a full list of those, and you've got to pre-plan your questions to match those before you even get into a meeting, before you get into a call. And I think that you can do those discovery questions either on the phone, you know, if you catch somebody on the phone that is being real chatty and giving you all this information, “just keep going. Like, don't ask for a meeting, you know, you'll probably get a meeting out of it” if it's going well, but get all that information first because when you actually get there and do a demo, if you have all that information, you're going to be much more successful because you're not going to go in talking about the battery if they don't care about it. You're going to then group when you get into there to do the demo, if you've already done the questioning,

   In Meeting-setting asks

7. 12:18

   You've got to really come up with a full list of those, and you've got to pre-plan your questions to match those before you even get into a meeting, before you get into a call. And I think that you can do those discovery questions either on the phone, you know, if you catch somebody on the phone that is being real chatty and giving you all this information, “just keep going. Like, don't ask for a meeting, you know, you'll probably get a meeting out of it” if it's going well, but get all that information first because when you actually get there and do a demo, if you have all that information, you're going to be much more successful because you're not going to go in talking about the battery if they don't care about it. You're going to then group when you get into there to do the demo, if you've already done the questioning,

   In Replies and meetings

8. 17:50

   or the frequency to be keeping up with them. So I can still keep the account, but I'm not being annoying, but I'm staying top of mind. And so do you have any recommendations, whether it's LinkedIn touches or email touches, or just calling every once in a while to stay on top of your prospects when there's not an immediate selling opportunity? Yeah, I think there's a couple of things there. The first one I always do to make sure that “you don't miss an opportunity is to ask them when their budgeting process begins, because” if you know, they're going to be buying at a certain time, they're going to have to plan that ahead of time. So if their budgeting process begins in March, make sure you follow up with them in February, or even slightly before that to make sure you're getting ahead of the budgeting process. So that's one thing. The other thing is, you know, research shows

   In Buying process discovery

9. 18:52

   off with usually like a week and then maybe do four days on the next one and then another week and vary it. Let's say, however, that you have called someone, they asked you for a quote, and then they just, what I call go dark, you know, you know, you're from again, you're like, no news is brought good news. What should I do? I there's, there's several “Send them a video message, you know, get them to just say, Hey,” I just want to make sure you got the proposal. And a lot of times that will just spur them on to at least say, yes, I got it. You know, I think another great way to do it is to try to get them on the phone. I love to send an outlook message and outlook invite, I should say. And I would only do this to somebody that you've already talked to who actually showed interest because it's pretty brave, but I, but oftentimes, you know, they don't

   In Video prospecting messages

10. 30:04

    One, you can say, hey, mind if I hit you back in a month? Or two, try to find their budgeting cycle so you know exactly when to kick off that next buying window. And then lastly, number four, when somebody goes dark on you, send them a video, ask them if they got. that proposal. If you've spoken with them before, you can force the calendar invite too, “but don't just keep blasting them with emails.” Share this podcast with somebody who works in sales. The best way that I've leveled up my selling game is talking about the content that Armand and I are recording here. He and I talk about the episodes that we record every single week, and it's actually helped me level up a ton

    In Breakup emails