July 4th Long Weekend

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I hope you all enjoyed the 4th of July here in the States. For those of you outside the US, hopefully, it was a quiet week during which you could get a bunch of stuff done.

It was a quiet week overall, so I took the chance to catch up and reconnect with a few people I hadn’t talked to in a while.

Those conversations, along with a few great podcast guests, led me to this week’s newsletter, which focuses on the importance of human connection and the debate on where it’s going with AI.

This week, I was reminded of the power of human connection and the one thing that AI cannot do.

People remember stories, experiences, and how you made them feel. They never remember facts, features, or PowerPoint presentations.

SALES FROM THE STREETS: The human connection 

TACTICAL TIPS: Does that make sense? 

SALES RESOURCES: You be the judge 

SALES FROM THE STREETS: THE HUMAN CONNECTION

This past week, I had two in-person lunch meetings with clients and two podcast interviews that reminded me of the importance of human connection and real relationships.

As much as I love the virtual world, we’re in, and how I’m no longer on a plane every single week of my life, you can’t ignore the importance and impact of meeting someone in person. 

I can have ten meetings with someone on Zoom, but it doesn’t replace the rapport and connections you can build with one face-to-face meeting.

They are more memorable because it’s not just about the conversation; it’s about the environment and the overall experience.  

We attach smell, touch, sound and a lot more to someone when we meet them in person, which makes it a far stronger memory than if we met them virtually, where it all tends to blend together.   

As for the experience, since in-person meetings are so rare these days, they tend to stand out just because they’re different.  

But, the experience is where we can close the gap between in-person and virtual meetings if done right.

I was reminded of this when I interviewed “Pops” on my weekly podcast.

Pops runs a company called DrinkCurious, which does virtual and in-person tastings of different types of liquor. 

For the podcast, he shipped me four different types of whiskey in small, unmarked bottles, along with a sniffer and pinwheel that included all the different flavor types. 

As we talked about his background (which is insanely interesting), we paused to try some of the different whiskeys, and he would educate me on each of them.  

He taught me about the “legs” and what they meant about the whiskey, how to smell and take the initial sip (similar to wine but different), what the different flavors were, and why, based on our past experiences, I might be tasting something different than him. 

It was one of the most memorable and unique experiences I’ve had on my podcast in a long time.

And that’s the point—how can we stand out in today’s virtual world, where all our products, services, and even experiences are being commoditized? We need to be different, and we need to do something memorable to stand out. 

I’m not saying we should meet with every client face to face or send whiskey before every meeting, but we need to stop doing what everyone else is doing and think differently. 

In the next section of Tactical Tips, I’ll explain how you can do this with your demos.

Tactical Tips: Does that make sense? 

Demos are my least favorite part of the entire sales process.

You want to know why?  

Because they are all exactly the same. 

Here’s how almost all of them sound:

“Thanks for joining the call today. Is this still a good time?”

• This is a pet peeve of mine. Why would you ask someone if this is still a good time for a meeting they have already attended?  Why would you give them that potential excuse to say no?

“Ok, well, I have about a 30-minute demo that I’d like to go through with you. Before we go through everything, just let me know if you have any questions. Mmmmmkkkkkay?”

Then, the rep goes through every single slide like they were badged for in boot camp and then they pause intermittently and say stuff like:

“Does that make sense?”

Has anyone ever said “no” to that question, by the way?

And even if they say “yes,” does that tell you whether or not it made sense? 

Of course not!  But it sure makes us feel good about ourselves and keeps us going.

Then, at the end of one of those canned piece of crap demos, we always get that nice little parting gift, and it’s the word “digest.”  

The client usually says something like this: “Thanks for that. We’re going to need some time to DIGEST everything you just went through, so why don’t we circle back in a couple of weeks, and we’ll take it from there, okay?”

If you ever hear the word “digest” after one of your demos, you know you’ve done a terrible job. It is our job to help them digest the information. If they walk out of the conversation more confused than they were walking in, then we haven’t done our job as sales reps.

Here’s what you can do instead:

1. The agenda for the demo should look something like this:

   1. We know about you so far

   2. What specifically do you want to see from today’s presentation 

   3. A tailored conversation around the specific components of our solution that align with your needs

   4. Next steps 

2. Start the conversation by reviewing the agenda and using the “Sandler upfront contract” where you would say something like this:

   • “If we get through all of this and address your specific needs, typically the next steps are (and then you dictate what those will be: meeting with their tech team, executives, etc)

3. Start the conversation with a slide or two about what you know about them and their challenges so far

   • clarify/confirm this information with everyone 

4. Go around and ask each person what they specifically want to get from today’s presentation 

   • The more specific they are with what they want to see the more you know how serious they are about making the decision and also how far along the buying process they are

   • Write down what each person says 

5. Start going through the presentation/demo

   • Don’t stay in presentation mode the whole time.  Bring the slide deck down every once in a while to have a conversation about a specific point.

   • If it’s a demo and you can give them the controls so they can do it themselves that is ideal if it’s not too risky.

6. Skip through the features that all your competitors have and aren’t that much of a differentiator for you. 

7. When you get to a point of the demo that highlights a priority that one of the people in the room said they wanted to address at the beginning, stop and address that person directly and instead of saying, “does that make sense?” say this:

   • How does that compare to what you’re doing now?

   • Could you explain to me how you see that fitting into your existing workflow?

Your answers to those two questions will tell me everything I need to know on whether or not it “made sense.”

8. After the demo, go back to the agenda and ensure you addressed everyone’s priorities.  If they agree you then do the “assumptive close” and go back to what you said the next steps would be as part of the upfront contract.

Sales Resources  

Guy Kawasaki Comparison 

If you’ve been following me, you know I interviewed Guy Kawasaki on my podcast about a month ago.

I found out he created a KawasakiGPT and he had said in a previous interview that if you ask his GPT a question you will get a better answer than if you asked him directly. 

So, I decided to take him up on the challenge.  The day before I interviewed him live, I asked his GPT the same questions.  I then interviewed him life and compared his answers to the ones his GPT gave me.  

We’re finally ready to launch the full podcast and share the comparison. Since you’re already on my newsletter mailing list, I’m going to share the direct resources here for you to check out before I release them to the public. 

I encourage you to listen or watch the podcast and then review the comparison document.

This will give you an idea of why I’m so adamant about the fact that we need to level up as quickly as possible and learn how to leverage AI so we don’t get replaced by it. Enjoy!

• Podcast Episode 

• YouTube Video recording of the podcast 

• Guy Kawasaki vs KawasakiGPT answer comparison 

• Kawasaki - How to be Remarkable (free online course) 

ADDITIONAL WAYS YOU CAN LEVEL UP YOUR SALES GAME 

• The JB Sales Membership gives you access to my live training, workshops, AMAs, and OnDemand catalog, so you can level up your sales skills every day! 3,000+ Sales pros have already joined. Are you next?

• 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. (this is where you’ll hear the Guy Kawasaki episode on May XYZ)

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