Countering: Sell Backwards

In today’s episode of Aligned, our host Sean continues his conversation with the Sales Evangelist, Donald Kelly, to discuss the centricity model and how limiting bad customer behaviors can help generate more sales for your organization. 

The second-best practice in the countering world is the practice of looking back

• Buyers will continually look back at their own bad behaviors. When a buyer’s response to a seller's inquiry is to ask for more information, they’re not seriously considering the solution.
• Flip the looking back ideology to looking forward - equip your sales and marketing teams with a playbook that focuses on the future state.
• Don’t spend time explaining specs on pricing, features, or benefits. Instead, sell the buyer on the future state they’ll experience with your proposed solution. 
• One of the most common mistakes for salespeople during the close is forgetting to remind the buyer of their initial state. Reminding people where they’re coming from is powerful. 
• Fear of change often comes down to the process. 

Irrational self-statements

• Irrational self-statements are rigid reasons why the customer can’t move forward.
• Create a playbook outlining all the common irrational self-statements that your customers have and how you can counter them.
• Counter their bad behavior with integrity, courage, and kindness. A dose of rationality makes a strong statement. 

Customer success

• Your customers are constantly looking and information is everywhere. 
• Even though you know you can name a hundred ways that you are better than the competitor, your customer can’t. 
• How are you marketing to your customers who are rethinking? Not just new customers but customers who are 2 or 3 years in. 
• Create a report card of the success that you are bringing your customers. Don’t wait till the end of the contract to communicate with them. 
• Offer a channel of your marketing budget to market to your own customers. 

There is more money to be made by fixing the end of the sales cycle than there is by creating more awareness, improving your brand, and getting more leads. Sell backwards, start at the end. 

Tune in to our past episode with Donald discussing reward behaviors on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and connect with Donald on LinkedIn or at thesalesevaneglist.com for more information and content.

This episode is sponsored in part by FitzMartin’s Sales and Marketing Alignment:

Why does proper sales and marketing alignment result in a 32% average lift in revenue? Because a unified company centered around its prospects can’t help but thrive.

FitzMartin’s Sales and Marketing Alignment program will analyze your current sales and marketing structure to deliver a plan based on the needs of your prospects, bringing you increased revenue, expansion opportunities, and (above all) a unified front when communicating with prospects. 

To set your company up for success, visit fitzmartin.com/solutions to discover how to unify your sales and marketing for the best results. 

This episode is sponsored in part by Fitzmartin’s Organization and Culture Alignment:

Company culture and retention are directly connected. After all, if you fail to build good company culture, you fail to retain top talent. At FitzMartin, we help leaders like you raise their NPS scores from the low 60s to the high 80s (and, more importantly, present a plan to help you do the same.)

Create your company culture based on a shared mission to attract and retain top talent. Visit fitzmartin.com/solutions to learn more.