IECT Summer School 2024 - Things I never knew I never knew - About Sales
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The document discusses essential sales strategies for entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of customer discovery and understanding customer value before achieving product-market fit. It outlines a step-by-step B2B sales process, including identifying stakeholders, researching business drivers, and constructing proposals, while also cautioning about potential pitfalls in the sales process. Additionally, it encourages iteration based on customer feedback and the use of pilot projects to secure initial sales.
IECT Summer School 2024 - Things I never knew I never knew - About Sales
- 1. Things I never knew I never knew About how to sell your idea Fiona Nielsen - August 2024 IECT Hermann Hauser Summer School
- 2. Every entrepreneur is a sales person
- 3. Entrepreneurs have to do a lot of selling Selling to Customers Selling to Employees Selling to Investors
- 4. There is a shift once you get Product-Market-Fit Selling to Customers Customer Discovery Marketing + Sales + Pilot Projects
- 5. When you have Product-Market-Fit When your target customer learns about your product described in terms what is valuable to them, they buy ! And you will focus on raising awareness, spreading the word, i.e. Marketing
- 6. A golden rule for selling Talk about what is valuable to them e.g. Selling to Customers - what is valuable to your customer? Selling to Employees Selling to Investors
- 7. Before you have Product-Market-Fit You need to do Customer Discovery You have a hypothesis about who is your future customer. Talk to them! You need to learn about your customer, iterate on your product to create value for them.
- 8. Before you have Product-Market-Fit You need to do Customer Discovery You have a hypothesis about who is your future customer. Talk to them! You need to learn about your customer, iterate on your product to create value for them. You need to learn to describe the value of your product in the words of your customer = a preparation for your future sales!
- 9. Beware of misleading customer statements
- 10. Beware of misleading customer statements ❏ “If I was the CEO of this company, I would do X” - someone not the CEO
- 11. Beware of misleading customer statements ❏ “I love what you do, I would buy it immediately” - your mum
- 12. Beware of misleading customer statements ❏ “This should exist, I can see it applied in industry X” - someone not in industry X
- 13. What is a useful customer statement? ❏ “When I encounter this problem in my work, this is how it annoys me and this is how I have been dealing with it in the past” - your target customer
- 14. What is a useful customer statement? ❏ “When I encounter this problem in my work, this is how it annoys me and this is how I have been dealing with it in the past” - your target customer Why is this useful?
- 15. Learn to ask the right questions Ask about how your potential customer currently deals with the problem. Avoid asking loaded questions.
- 16. Learn to ask the right questions Ask about how your potential customer currently deals with the problem. Avoid asking loaded questions. Don’t say: “Would you buy my product?”
- 17. Learn to ask the right questions Ask about how your potential customer currently deals with the problem. Avoid asking loaded questions. Don’t say: “Would you buy my product?” Do say: “What is your experience of this problem?”
- 18. Learn to ask the right questions Ask about how your potential customer currently deals with the problem. Avoid asking loaded questions. Don’t say: “Would you buy my product?” Do say: “What is your experience of this problem?” A great book for learning how to ask questions is called The Mom Test
- 20. ● This is our grand vision of the future! ● OK, and who will be your customer? ● This is how we differentiate from the competition! ● OK, what is your use case?
- 21. ● Then we talked to 20 different companies from the target audience
- 22. ● Why spend time on this?
- 24. Take 5 mins to make notes: ❏ Who is your target audience (hypothesis) ❏ Who will you interview over the next 4 weeks? ❏ What will you ask them? ❏ What will you be looking for in their answers? Discover and validate your customer
- 25. Take 5 mins to make notes: ❏ Who is your target audience (hypothesis) ❏ Who will you interview over the next 4 weeks? ❏ What will you ask them? ❏ What will you be looking for in their answers? Take 5 min to share with the person sitting next to you. Are you ready to keep each other accountable to your customer discovery plans? Discover and validate your customer
- 26. Build-Learn and Repeat Customer Discovery = Build, Learn and Repeat Once you have identified your use case and target customers by “Mom Test” interviews, ask for feedback on your prototypes
- 28. Now you want to sell and it must be easy from here on, right?
- 29. Now you want to sell (B2B) You got the foundation: ❏ You know who your customers are ❏ You know how to describe the problem in the words of your customer Selling to businesses can be a long process . Selling to bigger businesses is more difficult than selling to smaller businesses. They are complex organisations BRACE YOURSELF
- 30. B2B Sales Process Step 1 - Understand the Stakeholders Identify the stakeholders and decision makers ❏ economic buyer (the budget holder) ❏ technical buyer ❏ the end user and others who could influence the sale
- 31. B2B Sales Process Step 2 - Understand the business drivers Do the detective work to understand the business ❏ Prevailing challenges ❏ New initiatives/ new budgets
- 32. B2B Sales Process Step 2 - Understand the business drivers Do the detective work to understand the business ❏ Prevailing challenges ❏ New initiatives/ new budgets For each stakeholder, understand their motivations for the sale ❏ What is their criteria for success? ❏ How much influence do they have? ❏ Do they have additional requirements for the solution? and what other factors might impact the deal
- 33. B2B Sales Process Step 3 - Build Proposal Build your sales proposal to the business A document outlining the business case Demonstrating the product meets all the requirements of all the stakeholders Present your proposal to the customer, usually a live presentation, possibly including a demonstration of your product
- 34. B2B Sales Process Step 4 - Close the deal This step alone can take months, depending on how complex a business you are dealing with ❏ Procurement ❏ Finance department ❏ Legal
- 35. B2B Sales Process Step 5 - Deliver Manage the risks Learn from your mistakes Use opportunities to upsell extra products
- 36. B2B Sales Process Step 5 - Deliver Manage the risks Learn from your mistakes Use opportunities to upsell extra products Happy Customers are Returning Customers
- 37. B2B Sales Process Step 5 - Deliver Manage the risks Learn from your mistakes Use opportunities to upsell extra products Happy Customers are Returning Customers The Seal of Approval
- 38. B2B Sales Process Example Pitfalls The end users love your product, but: ❏ the budget holder is not willing to allocate budget to buy the solutions ❏ the budget is already fully allocated for this year ❏ the IT department (an example of a technical buyer) says the product does not meet the IT security standards ❏ the procurement department (another type of technical buyer) already have a registered provider for the type of product you are selling How could you respond to these? Take 5 min to discuss with your partner.
- 39. B2B Sales Process Qualifying Your Customer Selling to businesses can be a very long sales process, months to years (!) Don’t waste your time. Qualify your customer using BANT: ❏ Do they have the Budget to spend? ❏ Have we identified the person with Authority to approve the sale? ❏ Do the users vocally recognise the Need for our solution? ❏ Is the Time right? Do they need it now? Any Customer who does not meet the BANT criteria should down-prioritised
- 40. Top Tips for Sales ❏ Have patience! ❏ Maintain the relationships with the people you encounter ❏ Practice and perfect your communications ❏ Use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to follow up ❏ Build standard documents for your proposal process People Buy From People
- 41. Consider a Pilot Project to close your first sales If you have found your target customer eager to buy your value proposition Find your champion within the organisation to help you close this first sale. Offer a Paid Pilot Project with ❏ reduced duration ❏ reduced functionality ❏ additional customer support services ❏ price point that can be approved faster than full sale I would advise against offering free pilots. What is the reason for this?
- 43. We identified the champion within the organisation. Someone who had tried and given up solving the problem. They gave us insights into the sales process and importantly, budget limits.
- 44. We learnt critical insights that made us pivot our business model
- 45. What is your experience? Who has incorporated their business? Who has a prototype? Who knows their target customer? Who is selling B2C? Who is selling B2B? Who got their first sales already? How did you close your first sales?
- 46. Extra topics - if we have enough time Quick show of hands, who would like to hear more about: ❏ How to choose your corporate structure charity vs company ❏ Defining your Route to Market ❏ Selling in existing vs new market ❏ How to find your tribe, grow your community I am available for questions, I will be around all week :)
- 47. Thank you for your attention! Everybody has advice to share Only you can filter what is relevant and right for your business Fiona Nielsen serial entrepreneur in biotech, genomics and data https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionanielsen/