JB Sales Learning Lab #3

Helping elevate the people and profession of Sales by sharing authentic conversations, practical tips, expert advice, relevant tech and real-world lessons from my experience selling every day. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday. 

Welcome to the 3rd Edition of the JB Sales Learning Lab.

We’re off and running with the newsletter and already getting some great feedback. 

Want me to write on specific topics? Take this 30-s survey to tell me what you’re looking for and I can add it to the list I’m already working on.

My goal is to make this newsletter relevant and actionable for you every week.

Here’s what we’re covering in this week’s edition: 

SALES FROM THE STREETS:  Losing a Deal Because of an Acquisition

TACTICAL TIPS: How to avoid getting ghosted

SALES TECH AND TOOLS: My Favorite Filter in Sales Navigator 

If there is anything specific you want me to include in this newsletter moving forward or if there’s something I can help you with feel free to email us at [email protected]). 

Let’s Make it Happen! 

SALES FROM THE STREETS 

Losing a deal to an acquisition 

I did everything right!!!  At least I thought I did.

I engaged with power, had a Champion, multithreaded, boxed out the competition, uncovered the problem and the impact, was aligned from a budgetary perspective and more. 

And then I got this alert from my Owler updates

Damnit!  They got acquired!  

Not only did they get acquired but they got acquired by a Private Equity firm which in my experience means all spending is frozen and cuts are coming as they consolidate businesses. 

I reached out to my executive contact a few times and tried to proactively address the objection by calling out the situation but haven’t heard anything back. 

Needless to say, I’m putting this one in the “closed lost” file. 

What did I learn from it?  

I realized I didn’t level up the conversation and I was too focused on the problem.  

I wrote a blog post a long time ago called “sell to the 20%” which outlined my belief that people only care about 20% of what your product or service does so we need to find that 20% and focus on it. 

It’s about focusing on the problem, not your solution.

The real issue happens when you’re SO focused on the problem that you don’t see the “forest through the trees”.  

What I should have done was level up the “problem” and align it more with what their company growth goals and plans were.  

I know the IT space fairly well since one of my first companies was an IT Services firm that we sold to Staples.

I also know that the industry is all about acquisition and consolidation.  

With the market moving so fast I should have tried to uncover if there was an exit strategy they were trying to execute in a certain period of time.  

I’m not saying I would have been able to uncover if they were going to get acquired but sometimes a client will tell you they are going for an IPO or acquisition and just knowing that can help you drive urgency to get the deal done sooner than later.

At the end of the day, this is a great reminder for all of us to keep our focus on the right problems vs all problems.

TACTICAL TIPS  

How to avoid getting ghosted 

I don’t know if there’s much else I could have done in the example above to avoid getting ghosted but I’m about to find out if my approach will work now that I am.

I’ve used this approach to get an 80%+ response rate after getting ghosted.

Let’s be clear, that 80% is not all positive.  It’s about a 50/50 split. 

Here’s how it works:

1. Send a summary email highlighting key takeaways after your initial call and get them to confirm it

2. Make sure you never get off the phone without scheduling your next meeting and getting them to accept. Optional: Jokingly ask the client at the end of the call “would you do me a favor and not ghost me if you decide we’re not the right fit for whatever reason?” - tone is very important here.

3. If they miss the meeting or don’t respond after multiple emails “reply all” to the email thread and change the subject line to “Still Interested” and then write in the body of the email: “Could you let me know if you’re still interested either way so I don’t continue with unnecessary follow up?”

4. If they don’t respond to the “still interested” email then reply all one more time and change the subject line to “Did I lose you?” and then leave the body of the email blank.  You can also use the Chris Voss version and say “Have you given up on this initiative?”

Here’s the full breakdown with the details if you want to read more. 

SALES TECH/TOOLS - 

My Favorite LinkedIn filter  

Most sales reps think it’s a great “trigger” or reason to reach out to someone when they get a new job.  

If you’re an executive, the moment you update your LinkedIn profile with your new role you know why it’s actually a terrible reason to reach out to someone. 

EVERYONE is coming after you and wants to help you “succeed” in your new role. 

The problem is, I don’t know too many executives who are going to invest in new technology or bring on an unproven vendor as one of their first decisions. 

They are going to bring in people and solutions they already know and can trust.

That’s why my favorite filter in LinkedIn Sales Navigator is “past company”

Here’s what you can do.  

1. Identify your current top 10 customers who are doing well in this economy and getting a lot of value out of your solution

2. Go into LinkedIn Sales Navigator and click on “Lead Filters”

3. Fill in all the appropriate lead filters with the characteristics that make up your top 10 customers

4. Make sure you select the “Seniority Level” and “Job Level” of whom you want to reach out to

5. Go into the “past company” filter and add your top 10 customer names

6. Save this list as “Tier1 - Previous experience”

By doing this, you will have a list of all the executives who used to work with your best customers and are now holding executive positions at your Tier 1 target prospects.  

You can now reach out to these people and congratulate them on their new position, comment on their previous experience and see if they would be interested in bringing your solution to their new company.

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership is where you’ll get access to my live training, workshops, AMAs and OnDemand catalogue so you can level up your sales skills every day!  

• The industry-leading Make it Happen Monday Podcast where you’ll get insights and inspiration from some of the most interesting and influential people in the world of Sales and business.

• The JB Sales YouTube channel with practical tips that you can apply immediately to drive results along with interviews and content that is guaranteed to get you to think differently. 

That wraps up another week. If you have 2s - could you please take a look at the quick hit survey below?

Let me know what you think of this edition. The more info I get the better I can make this for you.

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