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Improve Performance, Provoke Thought, Think Critically.

You are constantly striving to improve.  You are looking for practical tips you can apply to your daily work that will impact your performance.  You are looking for advice from professionals who do the work. You want to engage with professionals who have been in your shoes.

Be the Founder that can clearly articulate the problem your company solves.

Be the Sales Professional that your customers want to work with.

Be the Learning Professional who can deliver your solution in the context of the business.

The Find My Catalyst Podcast is published weekly.  We take listener questions at @catalystsale on twitter or hello@catalystsale.com via email.

Topics discussed - Revenue Operations, Customer Success, Goal Setting & Execution, Mindset, Performance, B2B Sales, Sales Training, Product Market Fit, Growth, Hiring, Recruitment, Sales Process, Business Acumen, Startups, Leadership.

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  2. Asking Questions, Preparation, and Gap Selling with Keenan - 154

Asking Questions, Preparation, and Gap Selling with Keenan - 154

Aug 13, 2019

Asking Questions, Preparation, and Gap Selling with Keenan

This is an episode that was a long time in the making.  Keenan, author of Gap Selling, and CEO of A Sales Guy Consulting, joins me on the podcast this week.  This is another conversation where you may want to turn the volume down if the kids are around.

Keenan is awesome, he cares about the problems he solves, and he helps organizations and sales reps gain a better understanding of how to do this with their customers.

We cover a lot of ground, including the fundamentals, Keenan's book, yard work, skiing, and simplifying the process. 

Thanks Keenan.

Questions Discussed

  • Why do organizations focus on product over the problem?
  • Why do we struggle with questions?
  • How many problems can an organization solve really well?
  • How many problems will you take action on in a given day?
  • How do we help customers reveal problems?
  • Why do we complicate this stuff?
  • Why do we focus on Us instead of the Customer?
  • How can we do better?
  • Why is it important to ask Why?
  • How does Keenan help to create alignment in organizations?
  • What lessons did Keenan learn from the social ski lesson/networking product he created?
  • What one law does Keenan want to pass?

Key Takeaways

  • Sales has evolved over time, selling was...
    • People on the side of the road (barking)
    • As complication increased, we started talking about the solution
    • Rackman - Spin Selling first started to get folks thinking about the problem
  • Questions highlight your understanding of the concepts.  Statements demonstrating an understanding of the words.
  • Rarely can an organization solve more than 3 problems at once.
  • Focus on the major problems.  The ones that have the greatest negative impact, create the most pain.
  • We make buying decisions on the problems we cannot solve ourselves.
  • Stop guessing, start asking questions to reveal problems.
  • Your customers care about the end result - they will go with genie if the output is what we want.  Confidence is key.
  • Keenan - 3 questions to support qualification
    • Do they have the problem?
    • Do they want to solve?
    • Are they willing to go on the journey with you to fix it?
  • The buyer journey is about the organization, less than it is about the individual - be aware.
  • Pay Attention
    • You need to understand the problem that you solve.
    • Spend time training on the problems that exist
  • The best salespeople know what they need to get out of the customer, they need to validate it, and get the customer to share it.

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