The qualification stage of your sales process is where I think ‘’true’’ selling starts. As described in so many great books out there (The Startup Owner’s manual, Business Model Generation, Value Proposition Design) your product’s capabilities should fit with what the client is looking to fix/reduce/augment/change.
In other words, you become a matchmaker. It takes some time to pick up on the key indicators that confirm the fit, especially that in a lot of cases, you don’t really know all the benefits of your product. You as well are in discovery mode with your stuff, which means you’ll start your journey making assumptions on your Customer Profile, but may change or add to this profile as you go.
I really like that part. If done with the proper attitude, it can propel your sales funnel through the roof. The idea is to be humble, open-minded, and always curious. I very often start calls with clients saying things like “Why don’t you tell me about what (or how) you do to INSERTYOURKEYACTIVITY, I’ll tell you how we do it and we’ll figure out together if there’s a fit.” I’ve never had someone say no to this. It’s psychological: unless you’re a serial killer, you’re rigged to be nice to people when they offer to potentially fix something you’ve been suffering from. We’re all inherently selfish, which is key to our survival. Not just from an evolutionary perspective, but from a business standpoint as well (which is, in my opinion, another great demonstration of our evolutionary construct: Survival of the fittest)
Here are a few things to keep in mind when qualifying:
1- Timing Fit
Your product might be the next salesforce.com but the customer might not have the right setup to use it. He might not have the right team or tools to implement. In my work now, the client may not have his “thing” connected (boiler, HVAC, cow, pig, tractor, house, etc…) so although there’s a strong will to use analytics, there’s no point in pursuing the conversation at the moment since they are not ready. Trying to force readiness will make you into a huge peddler, the worst sin when selling for startups. If your sales team does this, it’s time to have a heart to heart about their understanding of the startup world.
So how do you assess readiness? Have clearly defined questions that you ask at every conversation that will help you assess whether the timing is NOW or LATER. If later, which may become your new normal, make sure you ask the person to crapshoot their ETA in terms of readiness and program a task or follow up in your CRM/Marketing automation tool to reach out again at that time.
This doesn’t mean that the conversation ends now and picks up only when they are ready. You must be able to frequently send them content to update them on your new functionalities, events, PR, wins, investments, etc… They could all be triggers to accelerate the LATER into a NOW. (Don’t ask me why I’m using caps, it just feels right).
Qualifying questions for timing:
- Do you have budget set for this or will this be reviewed for next year?
- When is your targetted start date for this project?
- Why now? Is there something important about to happen?
- When’s your busy season?
- Is there an RFx going on right now? Are you planning one?
- Where does this mandate come from? (if from the top, you know this won’t need the hooplas of justification)
2- Money Fit
That’s one I find difficult to put in a neat little box. As a startup, you often make assumptions about what your clients are willing to pay for your product. We go to market thinking we’re pimps with the hottest shit out there and people are gonna be like:
I still haven’t met someone like that. I really want to, but haven’t. It’s a game of patience, both for the buying & the selling side. Don’t forget that you’re client is taking a risk on you. He’s one of the first few people to pay for your product. He’s probably wondering: Am I getting screwed here? Am I an idiot for giving this small, no name company $X per month? What are people going to think if this fails? Am I EVER going to get additional budget? Will my wife dump me? Will my kids spit on my grave?
Things of the sort.
I think the most important thing is to know what is your bottom number. What’s the level you’re not willing to go under. Where do you firmly but gently say: sorry but no, can’t give you that discount. I urge you to make every deal profitable even if just by a few points. This sets a precedent and also will boost your confidence. But I digress…
The true indicator that confirms your client is a good “money fit” is if they have a line for your product type in their budget. You can’t go wrong with that. The other indicator is if they have access to other budgets such as “R & D” or “Others”. These 2 buckets have served me really well and removes some social pressure from your buyer since your product will be under the radar. A lot goes in that “R & D” bucket… a lot.
3- Product fit
Perhaps the first “fit” you’ll assess with your prospective client. Does your product fix a problem, replace a broken process, creates new revenues, accelerates time to market, removes the pimples on their bums, etc…
As a startup this is where you need to get creative: how do you strike the balance between selling what’s available now and what’s about to be release or even ‘’on the roadmap”?
What has worked for me is to focus on 2 existing functionalities that can be game-changers for the client and 1 soon-to-be-available killer app. There’s no exact science obviously behind this, I just feel it helps justify the price you’re charging and helps the client understand the current stage in the development of the platform. It confirms your product can help now, and will have even more impact in the near future.
Qualifying a good product fit is where your technical sales skills come out. You might be the nicest guy/girl on the planet, work for a superduper startup everybody think is cool, but if you can’t help your client navigate through the difficult task of seeing their life being different once they’ve subscribed to your stuff, you’re failing at the actual “selling”.
I consume an inordinate amount of books. Especially sales books. They all have a different twist on the best qualification method for the product-client fit. I think there’s some truth in each of these, let’s review a few:
- SPIN: Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-Pay-off. Another way to put it is you’re helping the client define the problems they are seeing or not seeing, then dig deeper with them to understand the impact of these issues. This will lead to financial & operational selling points. I think there is tons of relevance in this model if you’re selling B2B products, especially that the buyer will be looking for the perenial ROI. Be careful not to overstep your boundaries and to impose your opinion on what the impacts of the issues are. Remember that you don’t have 20/20 vision on their budget, true costs, and processes. Making assumptions or being dismissive about the client’s arguments can lead to some unhappy ending.
- Challenger Sale: This model lets the client make their own qualification, you’re there to help them avoid land mines, make the buying process easier and more importantly, offer “insights” & education. I’m woefully unconvinced about this one in the context of startups. At some point in my career I was selling Mobile Device Management & Telecom Expense Management platforms. Both extremely popular in the entreprise space and fully covered by the main analysts (Forrester, Gartner, etc…). In this context the Challenger sale is quite effective as it positions the sales person as the expert, coach & facilitator for the purchase. In the context of a startup, most of the time the product is innovative and/or disruptive and cannot be compared to anything else. The one thing I would retain from this method is to 1- know your shit 2- Make sure you’re ahead of the curve when it comes to helping the client see the invisible or the unknown i.e. benefits. The hurdle you might face is to be seeing as the Snake Oil vendor, promising unlimited returns on the purchase of your VR, IoT, 3D printing, Biotech solution. Make sure your claims are back by client’s testimonials or known recognized figures in your market.
- MEDDIC, Value Selling, Solution Selling: The fact that I’m bundling all of these together might offend the purists who swear by these methods. They are good. I do use them. I do not make them a religion. Especially that I’m starting to find them all quite a bit repetitive. You can summarize their tenets with: People need a good reason to change. You have to define what needs to be changed and why, how you will do it and what that will give people. You have to do this with the people who can give you money. Don’t forget to ask “Why now?” which allows the client to figure out their own closing methods. Boom, your a pro.
Keep your conversations open, don’t hide anything, and be blunt about the fact that you’re still figuring out all the ways the product can help. This will go very far in your selling for startups.
4- Personality fit
You’ve read before I’m sure, and I think it’s very relevant, maybe a tad more, in startup sales. People kinda have to like you. I say it a lot, but don’t be a dick. Amy Cuddy from HBS says in her book “Presence” that our immediate judgement of someone new is based on the answers to these 2 questions:
Can i trust them?
Can I respect them?
Your personality can become your ultimate weapon against your competition. I’ve had the chance to work in large corporations, and I have made there some of the my most lasting relationships. I’ve also mingled with the equivalents of Alec Baldwin in GlenGarry Glen Ross: slick, tricky, arrogant, annoying fucks. These people make you wonder how in the world people ever buy from them. Maybe it’s a personality disorder, I don’t know, but these poor people are throwing their gems to the pigs.
Once the sale is done, these trolls leave to close another deal and never stand by their client once shit hits the fan. And you know it will. You product isn’t perfect, your contract isn’t fully baked, there’s tons of stuff in there you forgot to mention and the client just signed trusting that you’re not screwing them. You have to honor that trust and be there when they need you. Don’t make them regret their choice. Another important thing is your happy clients are also your best sales people…
Ok, now let’s flip the table around: how about dick customers? We both know they exist. If you’re reading this and you’re a buyer, you know deep down that sometimes you’re a total asshole to sales people. Why? Easy: you hold the keys to the kingdom. You are the bouncer to their club, Willy Wonka with that Golden Ticket, Warren Buffet and his billions. You’re the prize and you fucking know it.
So I say to you as well, don’t be a dick.
Why? Well, seems sales people are catching on. First, if you’re a mid-level manager, they will get around you. They’ll talk to their VC, investors, CEO, VPs, friends, wives, drug dealers, daycare handlers, etc… to find a way to talk to someone else in the organisation that can say the all mighty Yes. If you’re the CEO, the Jesus on the Mountain type, they might just walk away and go to your competition. Ever heard of Owler.com? All your opponents are listed on there. Sales people have a tendency to be vengeful. Your “no” will turn into fuel for the fire that will help them close the deal with your competition, given them the edge they need to destroy you in the marketplace. Shaolin Style. Clearly I’m dramatizing, but in some cases, it can be true. We closed a deal with a client in agriculture where we literally invented something new for them. No one else does it and they are about to go live with the product. We all know they are going to make a killing. Kinda felt good to send that press release :)
The bottom line: people love doing business with people they like. Make sure that there’s a personality fit before closing deal as it may impact your startup very negatively if there isn’t.
5- Geography fit
This is less and less relevant, but depending on how work-intensive your implementation is, it may become a factor to qualify if a client is a fit or not.
To minimize the impact of geography (Gaia can be such a bitch) make sure that:
1- You have the best screen sharing, conference bridge solution available. DO NOT CHEAP OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m violently serious. I’ve had so many experiences with shitty conference bridges. It sucks AND it makes you & your company look like amateurs. I don’t care about your budget you dipshit, just spend the $150 per month it cost per person for Cisco Webex or Citrix Gotomeeting. Everyone will be happier for it.
2- Hire polyglots, a.k.a people that speak one of these languages:
English, French, Spanish, Mandarin, German, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese.
With these, you’ll be covered. Of course, it won’t be easy, silly you, but you must strive to get this done. Hire sales people that want to learn a language, “au pire”. I’ve learned Spanish just for the hell of it. I actually took calls with Argentinian companies with Google translate opened on my computer, typing what I wanted to say next and reading it off the screen. Language “fit” takes you very far.
(for the record, I can now have full business conversations in Spanish without Google Translate. How? Use the Pimsleur program. You’re welcome)
3- Take the plane. I know you’re a startup and you might be tight on funds, but if you’re planning to be an international behemoth, you have to be in front of them. Of course there are ways to maximize your trips (which I’ll cover on another post), the bottom line though is you’ll have to spend money to show that distance isn’t a problem and someone from your company will jump on a plane whenever there’s a problem. The previous company I worked for did this extremely well and it paid very big dividends as they became the number one TEM company on the planet. One of my good friends still travels to South Africa every other month although he lives in Toronto, Canada. Take the plane.
The last thing I’ll recommend is to keep your horizons quite broad in terms of reading material you consume. Read psychology books, economics, vertical-specific stuff. It’ll make you quick on your “mental feet” and help you bring more value to your clients.
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