How to lead a sales call if you're not a seller
For CEOs and early execs that aren't trained sellers
If you’re a professional salesperson, you should develop a pre-set, disciplined call structure for sales calls. Think of this like a checklist- this checklist ensures that your call structure will be scalable, repeatable, and that you’ll see consistent results each time.
However, if you’re selling as a CEO or early executive, and you’re NOT a trained salesperson, it is very unlikely that you’ll follow a sales call structure with the same rigor that a salesperson does.
And that’s totally ok! Just keep in mind, there is still a set of best practices that you can and should follow in selling the early version your product, before you have professional sellers to specialize in that heavy lifting.
So instead of talking about the ideal sales call structures for salespeople, let’s discuss an easier to follow sales framework for non sellers, CEOs, and early executives in charge of customer facing sales conversations.
A modest proposal
A good sales structure follows this basic roadmap:
Take charge of the call, and establish a structure or agenda
Ask specific, well informed discovery questions
Once you ask a discovery question that resonates, dig deeper and try to better understand the problem the person is facing.
Once you understand the problem your prospect is facing, try to understand the impact of that problem.
Continue to repeat steps 3 through 5 until you feel like you deeply understand your potential customer’s world, and the set of challenges they’re facing that your product can solve
Near the end of the call, take everything you learn, and turn it into a prescription for how your product can solve their problem
Set up a clear & fitting next step
Let’s break these steps down.
Seems simple enough, but let’s dig into each step and explain the WHY behind it. Understanding the “why” behind these steps will make them more intuitive, and easier to remember in the heat of the moment.
Step 1: Take charge of the call, and establish a call structure.
There’s nothing worse, in a business call context, than talking to someone who doesn’t seem to have a plan for your conversation. When done well, this means you aren’t allowing the small talk to drag on too long at the beginning of the call, and you’re setting a basic agenda and a sense for what you want to accomplish by the call’s conclusion. Seems simple enough, right?
Step 2: Ask specific, well informed discovery questions
Good discovery questions in a sales context sound like “how does {{PROCESS X}} work today?” or “what is your process around {{TOPIC Y}} today?”
You want to start by understanding your customer’s status quo before pitching them on how to change anything they’re doing. If your customer’s current processes sound perfect, and you can’t find any challenges they’re facing related to what your product solves, there is no reason to try to sell them something.
Step 3: Once you ask a discovery question that resonates, dig deeper and try to better understand the problem the person is facing.
If you ask a discovery question where you’re successful at identifying a pain that the prospect is facing, try to better understand that pain. Try to dig deeper, make sure you fully understand that pain from all angles, especially when you feel like your product may be able to help.
Key stylistic note: once you find a pain that your product can help solve, your instinct will probably be to pitch your product, or explain why your product will help them solve this pain. AVOID THIS TEMPTATION!
Seek a full understanding first and foremost, and wait to save any product pitch, or explanation of how your product will help solve the problem, until the end of the call. Pitching throughout the call makes you sound like a salesperson, and not a trusted consultant. It also diminishes the impetus to set up a next step near the call’s conclusion.
Step 4: Once you understand the problem your prospect is facing, try to understand the impact of that problem.
This is really difficult, and even advanced sellers struggle with this step. But just keep in mind, it’s one thing to understand the pain that someone is facing, but it’s quite another to understand how impactful this pain is.
An impact question could sound like “what have you seen happen as a result of {{PAIN X}}?” You just want to understand what downstream effects your prospective customer’s pain can cause them.
Step 5: Continue to repeat steps 3 through 5 until you feel like you deeply understand your potential customer’s world, and the set of challenges they’re facing that your product can solve
Asking a good discovery question sends you down a Socratic rabbit hole. Try to stack as many rabbit holes next to each other as possible- the more areas of a prospect’s business you can explore, the more compelling your solution will be, especially if you tailor your pitch to all the pains you uncover.
Step 6: Near the end of the call, take everything you learn, and turn it into a prescription for how your product can solve their problem
Ok, now that you’ve suppressed your urge to excitedly explain all the ways your product can solve their pain, it’s finally time to share a tailored summary of what pains you uncovered throughout your conversation, and a tailored explanation for how your product can solve the pains your prospective customer is facing.
By waiting to “pitch” until the later stage of the call, you’ll generate an excited reaction in your prospect that makes it MUCH easier to set up a next step. As a side benefit, you feel more like a consultant than someone trying to sell something.
There is an old saying in sales: everyone likes to buy, but no one likes to be sold to.
Step 7: Set up a clear & fitting next step
This is another skill where even seasoned salespeople struggle- but if you want this conversation to lead to a sale, force yourself to set up a next step on the calendar.
If it helps make you feel less pushy, explain the WHY behind this next step. Typically, it’s because you as the founder are super busy, and you want to make sure that you set aside time to dig deeper and make sure you’re getting your prospect the time, attention, and customization that they need to be successful.
If you frame the next step that you schedule as a favor to the customer, it’s much less anxiety inducing.
As a bonus, in establishing next steps, try to understand when your prospect wants to have a solution in place, and what their decision making criteria might be. These factors can impact when you set a next step, and who might be included in that next step.
Summary
When a sales conversation is done well, the following things are true:
the seller takes charge of the call- not in a domineering way, but in a way that minimizes the stress of the prospective buyer.
the prospective buyer should feel like you understand how to lead the call, and know exactly what you both want to accomplish by the end of the call
the seller tries to understand the buyer’s current state of affairs. You do not want to try to sell anything without being very curious about what their world looks like first.
the seller should understand that if they can’t find a legitimate pain that their product can solve, then they shouldn’t try to sell anything
if you, as a seller, appear too pushy or desperate to sell something, no one is going to trust you
if you, as a seller, appear consultative, curious, and genuinely interested in the right fit, you’ll build trust and assume a position as a consultant or advisor
if you, as a seller, pitch throughout the whole conversation, and tie their pain to your features constantly, you’ll lose your position as trusted advisor
but if you, as a seller, seek first to understand the prospect’s world first, and save all pitching and feature explanations until the end of the call, you’ll be pitching from a place of understanding and trust
as a seller, you can have the greatest conversation ever, but if you don’t set up a next step, the momentum of the conversation will die
remember, a good seller is a project manager first and foremost. One of your primary jobs as a seller is managing the buying process, not just convincing people that your product can solve their pain. So proactively setting up next steps are critical
As a founder, your investors will care about average deal cycle time. Setting up efficient next steps will ensure that your sales cycle length will not drag.
If you understand the decisionmaking criteria, who needs to be involved in that decision, and when the decision needs to happen, you’ll be in position to propose a next step that aligns with the prospect’s goals.
Thanks for reading EarlyGTM post #6!
Mike Marg
Principal, Craft Ventures
(for more thoughts on go to market, and occasional sports-related frustration - @mikemarg_ on Twitter)
And if you don’t already, subscribe now below so you don’t miss out on future issues of EarlyGTM
Great article. I particularly like how you stress the importance of understanding a prospect's problem before pitching your solution. Eager founders ignore this rule all of the time, and even seasoned sales vets I know jump the gun on this occasionally.
I did want to get your take on something I have found to be different in my experience as an enterprise sales rep. The book "The Challenger Sale" talks about this, and I think it is relevant.
If you can't bring some type of insight to a company to drive discovery forward then you probably aren't going to uncover anything very useful.
Far too many reps stay stuck in "discovery mode". And at the end of the 30-60 minutes they've blown all of their time on confirming what the prospect already knows. This rarely results in an additional meeting where they get to make the big pitch.
Often times, especially when selling new and innovative products, the customer has never really thought of their "problem" as a problem before. Status quo is powerful, and customers can be reluctant to admit to problems without some prodding or guidance.
I've found a lot more success when I can come to the table with some insights and can say something like "here is what we're seeing in the industry and in your competitors' business...does this ring true for you?"
Doing it this way gives your prospect the permission and social proof necessary to open up more. They tend to be a lot more open and helpful when you can bring a little something extra to how they view their business.
Would love to know if you've seen reps/salespeople get stuck in this "discovery trap"?