It’s quite obvious that sellers are pressing “send” on their sales engagement platforms way too haphazardly. I call this the “Drinking Bird Effect”. Homer Simpson would get the drinking bird to do his work for him. This is unfortunately what sellers are doing with their prospecting.
Here is what we’ll cover this week:
- 3 Archetypes of buyers you’ll need to adjust your prospecting for.
- Focus on Sales Process over Sales Platform / Tools.
- Ninja Hack – the text-to-call 1-2 punch that works.
3 Archetypes of buyers you’ll need to adjust your prospecting for
Vanilla messaging works on maybe, maybe 1% of your market. But if you’re trying to engage the top 10% of your market (see Chet Holmes Pyramid) you need to create unique messaging based on 3 different types of buyers. These are role based Archetypes, they are LEARNING-based Archetypes. You need to adjust to how people learn!
Archetype #1 – The Dead Zone
A prospect says “call me back in 2 weeks”, or “let me check my calendar and get back to you”, and then 1 week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks go by… and 👻NOTHING. This buyer is busy, so busy in fact that they are spinning multiple plates at the same time.
How do I help this archetype?
- Socially Surround them. Gain the social support of others in the buying committee. This archetype is being pulled in too many directions. Helping create priority alignment will focus this buyer on you as a Top 3-5 priority.
- Find insights (competitive intelligence, data sheets, studies, reports, etc.) that will push this buyer off their stagnant status quo and help trigger the opportunity cost of “Time-for-Knowledge” exchange.
Archetype #2 – Yellow Brick Road
You get the suspicion that this buyer just doesn’t get it. You’ve been outlining the solution but cannot seem to straighten out their path. How can you turn something that seems complex to them into little bite-size chunks? Lay down the Yellow Brick Road for this stakeholder, brick by brick.
How do I help this archetype?
- Make a video of Step 1, Step 2, Step 3. People learn in 3’s. Most people are also visual learners. Make it visually super simple to understand how in 3 steps, success can be achieved.
Archetype #3 – Mental Pretzel
This buyer thinks they’re a resident expert. They commoditize complexity. You get frustrated at their perceived arrogance and simplification of your service. How can you help them understand the cascading effects of “ready, fire, aim”, without designing a bigger strategic plan? How can you help a line manager think like a CEO, rather than only about their micro-initiatives? This is the art of a trusted advisor, and not a sales representative.
How do I help this archetype?
- Paint pictures with the opportunity cost of bad decisions. Tell war stories of companies that made simple, subjective decisions without understanding the opportunity cost of those decisions.
- Visualize decision-making trees. Showcase Path A = their path vs. Path B = companies with great success.
Focus on Sales Process over Sales Platform / Tools.
What wins a triathlon.
- The wetsuit you wear, bike you ride and shoes you run in?
- The training, diet, sleep, rest, vitamins (preparation routine) you adhere to over 9 months?
Of course you would say option B.
Unfortunately sales teams are fixated on tools. You may have a sales & marketing tech stack that is super shiny and looks amazing (like a fancy triathlon race bike). Problem, most of the sales team fails the “utilization” test. Tools are just mechanisms to accelerate a process.
Focus on the process. Develop great stories, leverage various mediums, tell these stories throughout a structured cadence. Design your process first at sub-scale. Get results. Then move inch by inch into scale.
How do you create process? Partner with best-in-class enablers. Learn how to develop a process that you can accelerate. Great triathletes have training buddies and coaches for a reason:
- Accountability
- Direction
- Shortcuts to Success
Ninja Hack – the text-to-call 1-2 punch that works.
I was listening to the Beyond a Million podcast with my friend Brad Weimert and his sales team has a fantastic tip to increase cold call conversions:
Step #1 – get comfortable with text. You have to be willing to send text messages to prospects you don’t know… or this doesn’t work.
Step #2 – text your prospect with your NAME + with a Call-to-Action to your email / LinkedIn message.
Ie. “John, this is Jamie Shanks. As per my email, keen for your feedback on XYZ insights. Looking forward to our conversation. Jamie Shanks”
Step #3 – immediately call your prospect and your NAME will appear in the Caller ID.
Conversion = WAY, WAY higher as the buyer assumes they know you, as you’re “on their phone”.
Do you sell into the Fortune 2000?
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