Michael Burns, Chief Revenue Officer at vFairs, explains why he conducts micro-level sensitivity analyses across individual sales rep conversion rates.
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
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…”