Insight
Burns: Sell to buyer objectives and personal bonuses, not pain points
“No one's going to care about solving pain points right now, but everybody needs to hit goals, right? And if we can identify their objectives and sell to objectives as opposed to pain, certainly not features, right? Because that doesn't matter. People are going…”
Insight
Burns: Any sales methodology is better than none to evaluate deal risk
“It doesn't matter what your sales methodology is. Just roll one out. Right? Which is absolutely true. And i'll show you mine. But if it's, i'm not a huge fan of bant. I think it's a little bit simplistic. But, you know, use bant. It's better than nothing. Righ…”
Insight
Burns: Inventing new sales acronyms forces reps to engage critical thinking
“The reason that I roll this out is because it's a different acronym, and it forces people to learn different words, and therefore engages their critical thinking skills, right? If they use Medpick at their old company, and the adoption was poor, they're going …”
Insight
Burns: CRM closed-lost tags conceal the real reasons deals actually die
“There's no substitute for having conversations, right? So the CRM's not going to tell you the, you know, the skinny. The CRM is going to tell you what the salesperson bothered to put in, or, you know, in some cases, luckily not at vfairs, but I've run into pla…”
Insight
Burns: Discovery calls should sequence strategy and tactics before uncovering gaps
“From a conversational standpoint, what we want to do is start slow, right? And we want to talk about things that they like, which are themselves and good things, and that's why I ask questions around their strategy, right? And then I start talking to them abou…”
Insight
Breaks in conversion rates best diagnose unoptimized sales processes
“I also need to be able to diagnose where in my process things are not completely optimized, right? And the best way to understand that is when you see breaks or aberrations in conversion rate.”
Insight
CRM deal-loss records mislead leaders because they rely on subjective inputs
“The CRM is not going to tell you the, you know, the skinny, right? Now, the CRM is going to tell you what the salesperson bothered to put in or you know, in some cases, luckily not at VFairs, but I've run into places where, you know, salespeople will bring, bl…”
Insight
Rolling out any sales methodology is better than having no framework
“It doesn't matter what your sales methodology is, just roll one out, right? Which is absolutely true. And I'll show you mine. But if it's, I'm not a huge fan of band. Bant. I think it's a little bit simplistic. But, you know, use band. Bant. It's better than n…”
Insight
Enterprise buyers ignore pain points in downturns; sell to objectives instead
“No one's going to care about solving pain points right now, but everybody needs to hit goals, right? And if we can identify their objectives and sell to objectives as opposed to pain, certainly not features, right? Because that, that doesn't matter. People are…”
Insight
Sequence B2B discovery questions from high-level strategy down to tactical gaps
“What we want to do is start slow, right? Right, and we want to talk about things that they like, which are themselves and good things, and that's why I ask questions around their strategy. Right, and then I start talking to them about the tactics that they're …”
Disclosure
Focus on increasing ACV when deal volume and velocity levers stall
“So for me, you know, volume is not a lever I'm going to pull. Demand is not what it was. Velocity is not a lever I'm going to pull because, you know, the buying cycle is longer. Size is, right? So I'm going to pull the lever on ACV because now I'm able to sell…”
Insight
Burns: Conversion rate aberrations are the best diagnostic tool for sales bottlenecks
“And I also need to be able to diagnose where in my process things are not completely optimized, right? And the best way to understand that is when you see breaks or aberrations in conversion rate.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burns: Marketing 3D virtual environments grew vFairs to $40 million
“And, you know, we talk a lot about, you know, three D environments and features, and that was amazing, right? And that, that grew us to forty million in a heartbeat, right?”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Burns: vFairs previously used subjective deal stages like 'demo highly interested'
“So the deal stages at fee fairs, when I came in, were things like demo highly interested.”
