How to Run Sales Calls for Technical Founders
Good sales is a transfer of enthusiasm
Hi Technical founders! You started a company and built some amazing technology that solves a pressing problem. Great! Now you have to go out there and sell it!
Does that sound slimy to you? Tech sales……yuck…..right? Well, here are other perspectives for you to consider:
One of the very best definitions of a sale is “a transfer of enthusiasm.” -Brian Tracy
Remember that what you are trying to do is be of service to the person you are speaking with. You want to help them and solve their problems.
"The rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage." -Dale Carnegie
I highly recommend every technical founder read these two books:
Carnegie, D. (1936). How to Win Friends & Influence People. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB02478846?l=en
I am convinced that if more people read this book and followed the ideas in it the world would be a better place and more people would be more successful. As a technical founder, you MUST understand and implement the ideas in this book!
Tracy, B. (2005). The psychology of selling. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8100737M/The_Psychology_of_Selling
One of the all-time best-selling books on sale. It will help you understand the art of selling, how to ask good questions, how to run sales calls, and so much more.
What if I have a sales call in 10 minutes? Great here is an outline:
Rough outline for a typical sales call
(assuming it is call number one and it is on Zoom):
PRO TIP: Get on Zoom 5 minutes early with the hopes of catching someone from the client side who is also early. Have a pleasant chat. Ask them where they are in the world, comment on the guitar on their wall, ask about their children, and joke about the dying houseplant behind them. Be interested in them! This little bit of rapport can go a long way in a 30-45-minute call.
Have a clear agenda.
High-performing sales folks don’t jump around, they have structure. It can be simple like:
Greetings / Intros
Discovery
Pitch
Demo/Questions
Next Steps
Greetings / Intros:
After some small talk where you are asking questions about them and being genuinely interested in them as people, move into very quick introductions. You want to know their name and title so you can start mapping the account.
Discovery:
This is when you get a chance to ask the prospect all about their tech stack and aim to identify their specific pain points. When you are asking questions you are the leader. When they are asking questions they are leading. So you want to ask a lot of quality, open-ended questions and listen closely. The prospect should be doing 90% of the talking at this point. Listen! Listen! Listen!
Think of yourself as a student here trying to soak up as much about the prospect, the prospect's company, and the prospect's problems as possible. Once you have enough info about their tech stack, what their problems are, and how you might solve them go into the pitch.
Pitch:
Focus on the specific products and features that will solve the problems you just learned about. Map your demo to the topics that came up in your discovery questions!
DO NOT list all the stuff your tech can do, the prospect won’t care.
Start first with solving their problems, and then quickly mention other features to gauge their interest.
You are now the teacher and advisor. Your goal is to educate them as to how your product will solve their specific problems.
Demo:
Once you educate your prospect about your service, you can now PROVE you have the solution.
Aim to increase interaction during the demo! Make it as interactive as possible. Ideally, your prospects will be asking lots of questions during the demo, so this will not be a specific part of the call. It will be more like a demo/question-answering session.
Next Steps:
You always want to end a sales call with a clear action. Set up the next call to talk over pricing, and set up the next call to answer more questions for other team members. Whatever it is, have the next step clearly outlined before you end the call.
PRO TIP: Turn on your Camera!
Gong is an epic tool for Sales calls. And since Gong has recorded and analyzed millions of calls they have pretty cool data that is worth taking a look at:
Need some help with Sales for your Start-Up?
Levitate Consulting offers custom-tailed Go-To-Market Strategies for technical founders. We build out your Marketing Foundations and give you the Sales Fundamentals you need to grow.
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Email: andrew@winwithlevitateconsulting.com
Website: https://winwithlevitateconsulting.com/