Dear Technology Salespeople: Our Wish List for 2022
This article was originally published on LinkedIn. View it here.
Dear Technology Salespeople,
In this information-heavy world we live in where time is limited and customers want a helpful and efficient experience, we would like to share our wish list for 2022:
Can you please show up prepared for a meeting that you are being brought into with a customer? The customer is not free all day and doesn't have time to spend the first 15 minutes helping you catch up on the research you should have done ahead of time.
When you are going to bring four people from your side on the call, can you please make sure that all four people need to be on there? If only one person from your side is going to talk, the maximum number of people you need is two.
If you sell through the channel and the opportunity is being brought to you by a qualified channel partner (who you require to go through your training to understand what a "good fit" is), can we please not have the first meeting be a qualification call to determine if it is an opportunity and there is a need?
If the customer has asked for a specific use case and you need a certain person from your company to be on the call to make it productive, can you please make sure they can attend the scheduled call? If they cannot attend, please cancel the meeting and reschedule for when they can so we are not wasting the customer's time.
Can you please show up to the first meeting or two prepared to show some of the product? As much as you think our customers care about your marketing presentation, they don't. Do not be surprised if the customer asks you for a demo of the software or product you sell, considering they can go to your website and download 100 different versions of the PowerPoint.
During the sales process, can you please speak in laymen's terms so that our customers can understand the deep technical information you are providing? And please be ready to give examples to the business.
When it comes time to deliver pricing, can you please not start at the absolute top to see if someone is willing to pay that? Would you be happy as a consumer if you found out you overpaid for something?
Also when delivering pricing (especially in a non-fiscal year end quarter or year), can you please stop pretending that the quote is literally going to self-destruct like a Mission Impossible message at the end of the month?
Once the customer buys from you (which is an awesome thing), can you please not evaporate into thin air? Please be available if the customer is having issues during implementation or beyond. We know you have teams of folks who handle this, but sometimes you can help and resolve problems quicker by just staying in the know.
And most importantly, can you please believe in your product or service? If you don't fully believe in your product or service, only commit to selling what you do. If you don't believe in any of it, then get a new job where you do believe in the product.
Sincerely,
Your Trusted Advisors