Leadership Playbook: Armand and Mark Teach You How to Run Pipeline Reviews That Don't Suck

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1. 7:12

   and how to communicate that to the customer. But that's where you got to start. Yeah, and I think one thing that you're calling out that's really important is that your sales methodology, right? Whether you're using Skip Miller or whether you're using command of the message where you're talking about the negative implications of your current business situation, all that stuff. Those are oftentimes the ways “that you're moving things through stages.” The stages are actually typically unique to the company, the sales cycle, et cetera. So, I want to use a version of your question that you used on another episode, which is convince the stubborn, annoying sales rep who doesn't want to update my sales force. Convince me to change my behavior here. I remember when I was at Carta,

   In Partner sales playbooks

2. 15:26

   my head around where this thing stands and what you've missed along the way. Or you can just happen in the mutually agreed upon stage that we've all agreed upon. For example, it's stage three. And I know all we need to focus on are the team-wide agreed plays that move a deal from stage “three to stage four. For example, at the end of a discovery call, we're always talking about the” five-minute drill, right? Stage one to stage two is, I want to know, do you want to buy? Do you have a problem? If so, great. When? When's your I date or your implementation date? And if so, how, right? How do you buy? I need to ask those three questions in order that take us from stage one to stage two. But I should not be asking those three questions in stage three to four,

   In Partner sales playbooks

3. 15:36

   three. And I know all we need to focus on are the team-wide agreed plays that move a deal from stage three to stage four. For example, at the end of a discovery call, we're always talking about the five-minute drill, right? Stage one to stage two is, I want to know, do you want to buy? Do you “have a problem? If so, great. When? When's your I date or your implementation date? And if so,” how, right? How do you buy? I need to ask those three questions in order that take us from stage one to stage two. But I should not be asking those three questions in stage three to four, because I've already mapped a lot of that stuff out. So I love your sense of using the different playbooks to drive deals from three to four and whatnot. And that's how you actually show your reps

   In Discovery question design

4. 19:36

   and I want it to be directly tied to the exit criteria that you're trying to accomplish in order to move the deal forward. And so that next step is what I'm expecting reps to come with to the meeting and seeing that it's aligned to our sales process. And if it's not, “that's coaching opportunity. Hey, we're in stage three, and we've already done demos.” Why are we doing more demos? All right, well, that's fine to do more demos with leadership. I totally get that. But how do we leverage that demo to get the stage three exit criteria completed so we can move to stage four and not just do another demo? Oh, okay. Well, yeah. All right. So we're going to get them to agree to a mutual action plan. All right, let's do this.

   In Co-selling opportunity management

5. 22:11

   And two is, what are you going to ask for at the end of it? And most reps don't go into a meeting thinking about that. They think about executing on the meeting. I need to do a great demo. I need to present a great proposal. I need to really help them understand the ROI. That needs to stay, right? But what you need to do is be like, all right, well, what are you trying to accomplish with the ROI? What are you trying to get them to agree to? “And then the next thing is, what are you going to ask for at the end?” And see, when you define those two things, you can drive towards them versus just being like, well, I had a great meeting. We went through ROI. But I don't know why they won't call me to get on another thing. It seemed like it went really well. They seemed really happy. They said that they thought it made sense. Like, why aren't they? Well, that's because you didn't drive to something that you were supposed to do in that meeting.

   In Discovery next-step agreement

6. 22:34

   And see, when you define those two things, you can drive towards them versus just being like, well, I had a great meeting. We went through ROI. But I don't know why they won't call me to get on another thing. It seemed like it went really well. They seemed really happy. They said that they thought it made sense. Like, why aren't they? Well, that's because you didn't drive to something that you were supposed to do in that meeting. “And then you didn't ask for anything afterwards.” You told them you'd follow them up with an email later or whatever. Bingo. So, you just got to always have that shot clock going. My buddy Alex Kramer says that. Have the shot clock going, five minutes left in the meeting, you got to start talking about the next meeting. That's right. So, my guess is, Mark, once your reps get pretty good at this stuff,

   In Discovery next-step agreement

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