Source: Chris Orlob
I helped grow Gong from $200k to $200M ARR in 5.5 years. Here's the key to Gong's crazy success:
"Build a product so good a weak sales team could sell it. And build a sales team so good they could sell a weak product. Do both, and you've got a juggernaut." - Gong's CEO
Here are 15 sales tips I learned along the way:
1. 'Who' matters more than anything in sales.
If you're talking to the Right person at the Right account, you can win even with sloppy technique.
2. There are 'two winners' in every deal.
The seller that won. And the seller that ejected first before wasting a bunch of time on something she wasn't going to win.
3. Selling is more about 'pain' than benefits.
Money follows pain everywhere it goes. Money only follows positive benefits every once in a while.
4. The 'blend' of people you put together in a deal dictates your success.
Be incredibly intentional about how you 'craft' the buying committee.
5. Understand the 'need behind the need.'
Keep peeling back the onion until you get to its core. The first few things customers share are always surface-level.
6. Building a business case is more powerful
When you measure the cost of the status quo than when you measure the positive ROI of your product.
7. Agonize over how you phrase questions.
“What are the ripple effects of X challenge on your business?” is far more powerful than “how does that impact you?”
8. Gain access to power by asking “who else is impacted by this challenge?”
When your buyer answers, request that they be involved. This has a high hit rate.
9. Test your champions. Do they get things done?
If not, they’re not a champion. Give them “homework.”
10. Things are always changing. If you don’t stay on top of them, you’ll lose the deal.
Start every call with “what’s changed since we last spoke?”
11. Social proof is so much more powerful.
Particularly, when the customers you’re showing off are part of your buyer’s “tribe.”
Make sure your social proof 'looks' the buyer you're selling to at the moment.
12. You can’t treat discovery calls with inbound deals and outbound deals the same.
You have to “earn the right” to discover outbound deals. Start outbound deals with a short narrative of the market pain you solve. Then transition: "Enough about the problems we tend to solve, help me understand your challenges."
13. Sell the hell out of the next steps.
Don’t assume your buyer will show up just because they showed up to the first call.
Sell the WHAT, the WHO, and the WHY of the next step you’re proposing.
14. If you’re having trouble quantifying a problem, ask “what metric would be solving this most improve?”
Bingo.
15. The best questions you’ll ever ask aren’t pre-planned.
They’re based on whatever the buyer just said. Listen!
That's it folks.
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