Anthony Iannarino: The Only Sales (Process) Guide You’ll Ever Need

Anthony Iannarino

Sales Kickoff Speaker

Executive Sales & Marketing Leader

Transformational Sales Strategist

Author: The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need (Pre-Order now before 10/11/2016 launch)

Creating value for the customer: You must drive conversations about what value is and what future states might look like.
Commitment gaining. Many sales people don’t like asking.
Creating a preference for you and your solution.

Quote: “I want an absolute right to the deal.”

Getting the first meeting

You need to be known
Need to be known as a value creator
The ask for time is the hardest commitment we ask for today.
Nurture the relationship in front of the ask. First call says nothing about your company.
Send ideas they should think about.
If you want to be a trusted advisor you need two things… Truest and Advice
Get with you group of people in your company to outline what we need to teach our clients, nothing ot do wiht our business. THis is the start of the buying process. this is the strat of the sales process. This is why you’re not getting the resultes you want.
Get in at the “CEO at the problem” level. Think north & south & east & west. Up as far as you need and down as far as you can. Ground truth is just as important.

Most of us have so much to sell, how do we decide what to sell them in the first meeting?

Often, the 20 minutes ends up being an hour, if you do it right.
Deck of trends that are really impacting their business – just teaching what’s happening in the world and why they should consider change.
A bit of the challenger sales model means you need to come with some insights.
At the end of these conversations it’s ‘what do we do next?’ Often that’s what the buyer is asking.
We tend to look at discovery from our perspective
We need to help the client discover ‘what’s possible’

What commitments are you getting between initial meeting and proposal?

Time: Going N&S
Collaborate on what a solution looks like
Access to stakeholders to build consensus.
Want a chance to review ideas with them about
Investment necessary to change
A lot of people are more comitted to their budget than they are to change
- You need to know enough
- need a little consensus around the idea this is a problem worth solving
They’re looking at stages of buying. Stay with them, not too far in front of them – don’t present your solution when they client is still thinking root cause and future vision.

It’s very easy to make a pitch but difficult to do it well.

What does it mean to you to be a closer?
- 10 Commitments you have to ask for throughout the sales process. Actually, there are 9 Commitment to decide and the 10th is the commitment to execute
Commitment to execute requires commitment from people lower on the org chart. Stay engaged and plow through the trouble spots together. being in the foxhole with the client makes it your failure. We underestimate the difficulty of change.
When you sell it, own it. That level of personal accountability builds trust.