Templates from Predictable Revenue book

 https://predictablerevenue.com/templates

I have been reading the book, Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross and Marylou Tyler.

Love it!

It is highly relevant for startups seeking to improve their sales prospecting process.  

It is connected to a website, https://predictablerevenue.com with an additional Templates section. 

The templates contain the following resources: 

• 3 Goals Today
• Outbound day in a life template
• Advisor email templates
• Predictable Revenue Cheat Sheet
• Videos by Aaron Ross on tripling your growth 

For me the Predictable Revenue Cheat Sheet is by far the best. If you like the message then check out the book! 

Losing a Customer

Yesterday I took my suit in to get dry cleaned.

The standard dry cleaners where I live charge $30 for three items (one jacket and two trousers).

On this occasion it was more convenient to take the suit to a premium dry cleaner i.e. the type that dry cleans wedding dresses and tuxedos etc.

I like this dry cleaner, and have been okay with paying a 20% premium.

On this occasion I was charged 60% higher than the “standard” price!

I only realised this after I had dropped off my items.

I started to head back to the shop to change my order. But I stopped and realised I did not want to embarrass myself through complaining on price to an organisation known for quality. It would fall on deaf ears.

So I sucked it up and decided never to use that dry cleaner again.

The main reason is that I did not feel that they were approachable to discuss my concerns and come up with a better solution.

As a startup founder it is not natural to want to hear bad feedback on your product. It will make you feel depressed - especially if you can’t fix it.

But your customers need to be heard. The mere access to you to complain about something can do wonders. You will be better tuned into their buying behaviour.

Productivity Secrets of Successful Salespeople (Salesforce)

I am a big fan of research that can help us all get better at selling.

Salesforce.com has produced this e-book that maps out simple ways for us to be more productive.

I recommend that you download this e-book and subscribe to their other material. It can only help!

For those who only have 30 seconds to understand the key points… here they are:

1. Start your day off smart: Win the morning by developing a routine that puts your agenda #1 - not others. This will help you take control of your time and effectiveness.

2. Stay productive on the go: Because sales people are not usually desk bound, you are out travelling and between meetings, makes sure you are setup to run your sales process via mobile phone and other handy tools/apps.

3. Conquer small but mighty time wasters: 41% of salespeople report that they spend too much time on administrative tasks in an average week. Find ways to cut back and reduce this time so you can focus on your main job of selling.

4. Use data insights to prioritise next steps: Now this is probably a plug for the big CRM companies like Salesforce, so that you use their tools! But to be fair using data insights should increase your productivity, depending on the industry that you work in.

5. Automate as much as possible: “Saying that you are too busy to automate is like furiously digging holes with your bare hands and saying you’re too busy to look up and grab a shovel.” Iman Maghroori (Salesforce). If you can find ways to automate your sales contact points, you can claw back some of your lost time.

If you think these points are worth thinking further then you should check out the e-book!

My latest favourite book - High Growth Handbook

This week I have commenced reading High Growth Handbook by Elad Gill. So far so good. 

The book is a guide startups that are about 100 employees to scale into the thousands of employees. 

The author is certainly one of the few in Silicon Valley with this experience.  

According to Chrunchbase, Gill is a serial entrepreneur, operating executive, and investor or advisor to private companies including AirBnB, Pinterest, Square, and Stripe. Previously, Elad was the VP of corporate strategy at Twitter, as well as ran various product teams (Geo, Search). He also spent many years at Google, where he started the mobile team and was involved in all aspects of getting the team up and running. He was involved with 3 acquisitions (including the Android team) and was the original product manager for Google Mobile Maps and other key mobile products.

Prior to Google, Elad had product management and market seeding roles at a number of Silicon Valley companies.

So far I’m enjoying the experienced practical insights and witty perspectives that keeps you turning the pages!

I have a confession...

Even though I have been in sales for 20 years, I still make mistakes.

Recently I spoke with my manager about why some opportunities did not close when they had been well qualified.

My win rate had been been slipping.

It then dawned on me! I had not been asking customers to commit to purchasing if I was to met their requirements. The commitment was all on my side and not on theirs.

I could have asked this same question in any of the following ways:

• Before I go to prepare my proposal, could you help me understand what your decision process is?

• If I was to provide you with what you are looking for, will you be ready to confirm?

• My manager (good-cop/bad-cop) has asked me to ask a few more questions before I go to prepare this proposal …

From now on I will ask my pre-commitment questions before I prepare a proposal!

4 Strategies For Becoming a Master Persuader

I am currently reading, Robert Greene’s latest book, The Laws of Human Nature. He’s a fascinating author and I bought this book on the back of his others (48 Laws of Power & Mastery).

Robert Greene recently released this article on Medium, taken from his latest book, “4 Strategies for becoming a Master Persuader”

“Most people do not want to expend the effort that goes into thinking about others and figuring out a strategic entry past their defenses. They are lazy. They want to simply be themselves, speak honestly, or do nothing, and justify this to themselves as stemming from some great moral choice”.

The key points are:

1. Transform yourself into a deeper listener

2. Infect people with the proper mood

3. Allay their insecurities

4. Use people’s resistance and stubbornness

If you are interested in these points, then check out the article. If you like the article then check out the book!

Getting Happy Customers

Happy customers are easier to manage than unhappy customers. 

You still need to spend a lot of time on them, but the work is much easier because the relationship is positive.  

How can we can we convert the unhappy customers to satisfied and satisfied customers to happy?  It’s not easy to give a simple answer... 

Certainly B2B customer relationships can improve with persistence, empathy and time. A few years back I inherited a customer which was in a bad state. It was a significant account which took us about 6 months of hard work to see signs of life in the relationship.  

In conclusion don’t get discouraged if things don’t turn around for a few months. They are testing you to see if you are genuine in your efforts to turn things around!  

Should you become a Trusted Advisor?

Happy customers are easier to manage. The best ones know what you are both good and bad at. 

Getting to this kind of relationship requires the honesty and commitment of a “Trusted Advisor”.

Now do you really want to become a trusted advisor?  

Sometimes a trusted advisor will need to decline a sale opportunity that they have an “okay” solution and instead recommend a competitor who is the market leader. 

When should you do this?  

It really depends on the competitiveness of your industry. When long term relationships and slow growth is the norm you should consider the trusted advisor approach.  

Conversely you will get eaten alive if you try this in a highly competitive, transaction-based industry!

7 Most Common Mistakes when building your first sales team

Here is a summary of one of SaaSTR’s most popular articles: 7 Of The Most Common Mistakes Made Building Your First Sales Team

1. Hiring a sales person that you would not personally buy from.

2. Hiring your first VP of Sales that has not worked for a small SaaS startups. Avoid ones that have worked for unicorns (Salesforce, Oracle etc) that are used to having lots of backup/support.

3. Hiring a stretch VP of Sales who has not hired at least 2 quota earning sales reps.

4. Hiring too many staff from the competition. They have some advantages, but you will probably overlook their weaknesses.

5. Giving reps too much time to scale.

6. Not training reps. Its your fault if they don’t have everything they need to sell!

7. Crazy, complicated accelerators and sales comp plans. Not keeping it simple.

The illusion of choice

Once you have enough sales experience in your startup, you will develop a knack on how to craft the best solution for your customers. 

But if you only give them one choice, the sales process may stall. 

Far wiser to give your customers three choices.

Your preferred solution will be in between a more expensive option and a cheaper option.     

The expensive option gives the customer features they may desire but is unrealistic. Expensive options also “anchors” your middle (preffered) option as more affordable.  

The cheapest price option gives an “ok” solution at a great price but does not entirely meet their needs. It can also save the deal if one of the customer stakeholders influences the decision based on what is cheapest. 

When the customer sees both a higher and lower option they will feel good about taking the middle ground.

Two additional options gives them something to compare their best choice with.

It also reduces their need to go to your competitor. 

And finally giving someone more choices makes them more freedom. We all like that feeling of freedom, even if it’s just an illusion...