Tech or SaaS sales conversation planning – a few simple sound bites

The tech or SaaS sales conversation.

A SiriusDecisions study found that 82% of B2B decision makers felt that tech or SaaS salespeople were unprepared for the meeting.

Many salespeople, even the pros, spend too much time on slides and not nearly enough time planning the sales convo.

Inevitably the slides often focus on the tech or SaaS salesperson’s company and solution, which is the wrong information.

Remember, by the time you’re in a sales conversation the prospect has already gathered 70% of everything they want to know about your solution from the web.

Waste not one minute repeating the obvious.

Creating sales convo sound bites

If your offering is complex, like tech or SaaS, you can’t have too many sound bites. Get together with fellow sales people and marketers to create them. Write on a yellow pad or, better, put them into an organized sales playbook, preferably digital so your reps have instant access.

How do I fix the tech or SaaS sales conversation?

So how do we fix this? Create 60-second conversational sound bites that lead the prospect where you both want to go. Some simple conversation planning will go a long way to getting a prospect to commit to the next step, and then the next.

A simple framework that we use is based on the customer’s decision making process. We find that customers want answers to three big questions:

Why change?

What is it about my current state that’s inadequate?

Sound bite: “Lots of our clients have found themselves in that exact same situation. Their current state was too labor intensive and managed with spreadsheets (or whatever they were doing). What have you seen about our solution that makes you think we might be a good fit?”

Why now?

What will it cost your company to delay fixing this?

Sound bite: “In one case a client was spending _____ annually on that situation. With our solution they were able to cut their costs by 75% and show positive ROI in the first year. Let’s calculate an average monthly or annual cost of delay, based on an estimated cost of ______.”

Why us?

Sound bite: “We’re having this conversation because you think enough of us, so far, to spend this time with me. What capabilities do you see that we bring to the table?”

Create sound bites. Experiment with them. Watch your numbers go up.