The world of sales has changed. Sales teams across the globe are grappling with longer payment terms, enhanced deal scrutiny, and stalled sales motions.
As a sales leader, how do you ensure your entire sales process is keeping up?
Learn from Dan Templatement, RVP of Sales at Chorus.ai, and Ryan Neu, Founder & CEO at Vendr, to learn three proven strategies to re-engage and level up your entire sales motion - from call to close.
3. How Deal Structures
are Changing
More scrutiny. More flexibility.
Agenda of the Webinar
Your Deal Signers
are Changing
Prepare to level up
Messaging has
Changed
Confident conversations
from start to finish
5. Net-30 days trending
back to normal, but still
well below March
PAYMENT TERMS MENTIONED
Longer Payment Terms
Continue to Be Discussed
6. Transparent Pricing
Creative Deal Packaging
Flexibility
Make rules where you don’t
necessarily give terms,
dependent upon segment
Trials
Offer more trial
packages.
9. Director and executive-level management join 80% more sales conversations since pre-COVID
Over the past five weeks,
leaders joining their seller’s calls
were up significantly vs. the
baseline.
Vs. Pre-Covid Baseline:
+65%
EXECUTIVES
MORE LEADERS JOINING CUSTOMER CALLS
+91%
DIRECTORS
Sales Leaders Are Joining
More Customer Meetings
10. Senior-level people participate in 84% buying discussions
Sales Leaders Participating
in more Buying Conversations
MORE LEADERS JOINING EVALUATIONS
Over the past five weeks,
leaders joining evaluations were
up significantly vs. the baseline.
Vs. Pre-Covid Baseline:
+84%
EXECUTIVES
+85%
DIRECTORS
11. Going Concern
Be Prepared to Talk
About Cash Liquidity
And Accounting
Terms
Talk to your finance team
about cash liquidity
Offer up your finance team
to talk to high value
prospects
Bring up these
concepts proactively
12. Deal Signers Have Changed
You must be able
to show 5-10x
ROI
C-Suite
Uplevel convo from use
case to business case
Make your software an
essential service
14. Outbound Motions Still Performing
Overall cold call dials are down 25% since January,
+7% week over week
CONNECT RATES
Connect calls are also down relative to dials, but
connect rates are steady at just under 10%
COLD CALLS
15. People Are Still Buying
Change your
messaging to fit this
environment. (Hint:
It's here to stay)
New use cases
New situations
New markets
16. Confident Conversations from First Call to Close
Show up prepared
Do the work
Be relevant
Align your
message and your
solution to what's
most important to
your buyer
17. Be Flexible With Your
Offering
Key Takeaways
Lean On the Biz Case
vs Use Case
Don’t Stop Believing
(and Selling)
18. Email Dan Templeton at dan@chorus.ai for a Custom
Demo!
To get in touch with Ryan Neu, email him at
ryan@vendr.com
Speaker Note: What we’re talking about here isn’t limited to this COVID era, things have changed forever. New reality - not covid only
Data:
Lengthening of Payment Terms MoM (pre- and during COVID)
First meetings → Follow up conversion cliff (need to conduct specific disco early)
Messaging:
Question Posed: How to adapt to a new climate of uncertainty?
Anecdote: Make rules where you don’t necessarily give terms, dependent upon segment [Ryan]
Tactical Advice:
Conduct Term Discovery: Asking the right questions
Question from Scott : Can you clarify what does that mean, what is changing in deal structure / why?
DB data
Meeting volume up 4%
Less risk language on calls
Gradual return to net-30 payment terms
Team shave learned to be flexible with payment terms and it will continue
Question: Your prospects are more uncertain than ever now. There’s a higher risk in bringing on new products. How do you overcome that and address the uncertainty that they’re feeling? (Scott to ask question and queue Ryan)
Ryan Notes:
Impact Analysis
-Flexibility: It’s not 1 size fits all. The best salespeople are the most adaptable.
-Trials: I wouldn’t offer trials for the sake of offering trials. I’d offer trials if that is the next logical step to get closer to closed won. Before giving trials, I’d ask your prospect if the trial will actually help advance the deal. If so, why? How are they going to measure? What happens after the trial?
-Transparent Pricing: Have an MVP mentality when it comes to pricing. The simpler, the better. In the past, confusion oftentimes led to bigger deals. Not it will lead to lost deals.
Dans Notes
Ask uncomfortable questions - timing, budget freeze, competing priorities
Get to No FAST so you can flush "imaginary" deals from your pipe and work deals we know we can win
Deeply understand the NEW purchase process - from eval through signature to implementation planning
Go deep to engage as many stakeholders (influencers) as possible so you're not single-threaded so you can deeply understand how decisions are now getting made and assume you will need to present business case to CFO/CRO
RYAN NOTES:
Salespeople have 2 jobs: 1. Helping people evaluate your product/service 2. Helping people buy your product/service.
Right now, it’s critical that you define your job to the prospect and allow them to opt--in to the correct bucket. This will help you avoid offering discounts to non-buyers. Instead, you should customize your discount based on the specific need of the buyer, if and only if they’ve confirmed that they are in the buying bucket.
Scott - what do you mean by conducting term discovery?
Leadership in Meetings
Data:
Buying-side Leadership Meeting Participation
Selling-side Leadership Meeting Participation
Messaging:
Question Posed: How is COVID changing purchasing decisions?
Anecdote: Champions changing: COOs
Tactical Advice: Change your conversations:
Uplevel convo from use case to business case
Make essential
Scott : to transition , multi threading in the new climate
Dan:
Uplevel convo from use case to business case
Make your solution essential and aligned with c-level problems you solve
Deals are not getting approved without C-Level involvement (CFO, CRO, COO) - Get leadership involved and connected early and often
Dan:
Change your conversations:
Uplevel convo from use case to business case
Make your solution essential and aligned with c-level problems you solve
Deals are not getting approved without C-Level involvement (CFO, CRO, COO) - Get leadership involved and connected early and often
Dan to ask Ryan : what are you seeing on the buyer side?
Ryan Notes:
Executives are involved with your deal whether they are on the call or not
CFOs likely have a list of non-negotiables and it’s your job to find out what’s on that list and then decide if you’d like to comply or pass
RYAN NOTES:
Salespeople need to get acquainted with the concept of “Going Concern”. Going concern is an accounting term for a company that has the resources needed to continue operating indefinitely until it provides evidence to the contrary. ... If a business is not a going concern, it means it's gone bankrupt and its assets were liquidated.
It’s a fact that many companies will not make it through COVID and finance leaders want to have certainty that if they buy your product, you’ll be around in a year. If not, they’ll be left holding the bag.
Advice:
Talk to your finance team about cash liquidity
Offer up your finance team to talk to high value prospects
Bring up these concepts proactively
Dan:
Uplevel convo from use case to business case
Go high and attach yourself to the biggest business problems your solution can solve to unlock "dry-powder funds"
Dry powder is committed, but unallocated capital i.e. unspent cash that is waiting to be spent i.e. safety net in tough times
It’s a commonly used term in the VC and startup world. This is because all VC’s and Leadership at companies want/need adequate cash on hand to quickly invest in a new opportunity or provide additional funding to fuel growth initiatives.
Proactively prepare and show 5-10x ROI. Leave nothing to chance in terms of the value and ROI that you will deliver to the organization bringing on your new product/service
RYAN NOTES:
ROI Noise. Yes, selling with a tangible ROI is more important than ever. But, it has created a lot of noise. Now, everyone is claiming that they save money or generate a positive ROI. What does this mean? Finance teams will prioritize the projects with the best return. 1-3x ROI is likely not going to warrant an investment, now. Most CFOs are looking for a guarantee of 5x with the hopes of accomplishing 10x. Above 10x? You’re likely underpriced.
Sales Team Productivity - yes world changed. Changed position don’t change behavior
Data
Cold Call Dials → Connect Rates
First Meeting → Follow Up Meeting Cliff
AEs → CS
Data about market likely to come back
Messaging:
Question Posed: People are still buying. Why is that? How does that change how you approach them?
New use cases, new situations, new markets
Tactical Advice:
Prospecting with Confidence: Outbound team must believe that people should buy software rn
OB down, but why
Prioritize Resources:
Activate entire sales motion: Turn closers into hunters
Time and energy on the companies that are more likely. Reallocating to new biz vs acct mgmt)
Anecdote: Vendr pull data re: how many deals they’re closing for people
Dan - Chorus stats
Ryan - to talk about Vendr Stats (faster decisions / why / world has paused, but we are seeing 75% of activity back)
Faster decisions: right now, sales is binary. They are going to buy or not.
People are still buying
Why is that?
How does that change the way you approach them?
Dan T:
We need to be relevant, personalized, and demonstrate the contrast between status quo and a world with your solution in place i.e. no delta, no deal
Share insights - Tell me something I didn't know about my business or market
Tighten your messaging to align your story to mission-critical, business priorities by persona(s) you sell to
Scott to queue this up - People are still buying, how has it changed from buying / selling side to adjust that approach
Dan:
Prospecting with Confidence: Outbound team must truly believe that people can’t wait to see how things shake out and need to communicate with confidence why waiting will negatively impact the business
Dan T:
Do the research to be relevant and leverage connections - So much information out there and it blows me away how infrequently people take advantage of this, especially if selling into the enterprise (10Q/10K, LI, Crunchbase, etc.)
Be credible and know their priorities and align your solution, specifically, to how you force-multiply their active initiatives.
If your solution doesn’t align with those priorities, put them back in nurture and don’t waste your time/resources
Ryan:
The importance of Belief. As a salesperson, do you actually believe that your prospect should buy? If so, it’s your job to convey that story with authenticity.