A primary theme I hear from go-to-market (GTM) leaders all the time is the desire to wanted their sales team to be seen as a trusted advisor to their customers.
There’s a good reason for that! Because trust is everything. A buying decision is often down to which solution (or company) inspires the most trust – which means when a leader’s team isn’t attaining that status, there’s negative consequences in the form of closed-lost deals or customer churn.
Per Salesforce research, 84% of buyers expect sales reps to act as trusted advisors – yet only 73% say most processes feel transactional.
You know it when you see it – and when you don’t. But … what does being a trusted advisor actually mean?
In my mind, it comes down to a few key components. Let’s explore them, and you can always shout at me over on LinkedIn if you agree or disagree:
Expertise
I love what Jason Lemkin at SaaStr said in this career advice to reps: “Know the product cold. All of it. If you do, you can, if nothing else, add tons of value to your prospects. That alone is probably enough to put you in the top 1/3d of sales reps.”
And yet, how many times have we all been on a sales call and thought “this salesperson doesn’t get it.”
It’s especially true at companies with diverse portfolios across a broad range of solutions. For example, in a bank, a rep may have products related to mortgages, insurance, accounts, investing, and more.
It’s impossible to know it all. This isn’t the rep’s fault – they’re doing their best to stay on top of it all while still making their numbers.
Each salesperson may have particular strengths and weaknesses with their product knowledge, which induces risk because either they’ll slow the sales process to get an expert on a weakness of there’s involved – or they’ll fail to take advantage of the opportunity.
A rep who’s an expert can:
- Ask the right questions that lead to “ah ha” moments for the buyer
- Connect the challenge(s) to similar situations other customers have faced
- Keep the conversation from going down rabbit trails that lead to nothing
We want the prospect to leave a call with us feeling it was time well spent.
Confidence
Just because you have expertise doesn’t mean you can express that confidently.
Are you comfortable with what you’re saying? That comes from experience, but also having done your homework both on the solution(s) you’re selling + the prospect’s needs and wants.
It also lends itself to great communication.
A big issue revenue leaders tell me is that their reps aren’t confident. And that leads to closed-lost deals.
Oftentimes it’s not pushing the buyer in a particular path or coming across as very salesy. We’ve all walked through a shopping mall where there’s someone screaming at us to try their product, or giving us a free sample.
But we know if we go over there, we’re getting sold to. And that’s what we don’t want, so we avoid that person hawking their wares and take longer paths to our target store just so we don’t get sold to.
Reps lacking confidence often over-compensate in a variety of ways, from humor to personality to all sorts of things. And it happens to us all! But buyers are more educated than ever before they’re speaking with you – and they’ll know if you don’t have the answers they’re looking for.
Expected Process
Buyers bring their expectations into your process, and if you don’t meet or exceed them, you’ve hurt your chances of closing the deal.
Here’s a personal story: Years ago I went to a new dentist. It was closer to my home and I went there for the convenience.
I went in there, did the normal teeth cleaning … and everything was fine and normal.
It’s what happened next that threw me off.
They pulled me out of the chair and moved me into a side room that had a desk, a TV, and a new person I hadn’t yet met comes in and walks me through a bunch of different products and services they offer.
This was completely disconnected from my experience thus far. It was jarring! It wasn’t “hey, you have a cavity, let’s get it filled” but instead it made me put up all defenses so that I was just trying to get out of there without being completely rude.
Any trust they’d built with me from the dental service was lost. And of course, I’ve never returned – and if anyone’s asked, I have told them to avoid this dentist.
If your sales process annoys your buyers, you’re winning less deals and/or setting up onboarding to be far more difficult than it needs to be. But the opposite is also true: if you delight your customers by providing something “different” that’s beyond their typical meeting-meeting-meeting so many global organizations do today, you vault yourself to the front of their choices.
No matter if you’re a Fortune 100 or a local dentist.
The 9Lenses Effect
So, how does our tool help your teams become more of a trusted advisor?
Simply put, our platform supports better demonstrated expertise for your buyers, greater confidence for sellers, and creates a better sales process.
- Expertise: In 10 minutes or less, buyers get personalized recommendations. And it directs the topics for their initial meetings, which reduces wasted time, too.
- Confidence: Sellers know exactly how to direct their conversations and which subject matter experts to pull in immediately. They better understand the buyer’s needs and aren’t left guessing and playing defense if they get it wrong.
- Process: Because both buyer and seller have better information for the initial meeting, each feels they have a productive conversation that’s specific to the right solution(s). And everyone feels it was time well spent, especially when it feeds into a shorter sales cycle.
Sound interesting? Then request a demo or say hello over on LinkedIn with your questions.
