Welcome to SALES with ASLAN, a weekly podcast hosted by ASLAN Co-founders Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris, geared at helping sales professionals and sales leaders eliminate the hard sell. At the end of the day, we believe that selling is serving. ASLAN helps sellers make the shift from a ‘typical’ sales approach, to one that makes us more influential because we embrace the truth that the customer’s receptivity is more important than your value prop or message.
The goal of these interviews is to spotlight various experts in the world of sales and sales leadership – sharing informational stories, techniques, and expert interviews on the sales topics you care about.
The following are notes from Ep. 132 – 10 Tips for Selling Virtually from a Pro (Part 1)
In this episode, Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris talk with Genna Lepore about her success selling virtually. She reveals how she was able to close deals 50% faster and crush her number during the pandemic.
Listen to the conversation here:
Or check out the summary and full transcript below.
Summary:
Pro-tip #1: Using video to get meetings
Pro-tip #2: Turn off personal distractions. (Including self view on camera).
Pro-tip #3: Leverage your behind-the-scenes and engage props.
Pro-tip #4: Be intentional about creating a deeper dialogue.
(We unpack the remaining six tips in the next episode).
Transcript:
00:14
Tom Stanfill
Welcome to another episode of SALES with ASLAN. And I’m your host, Tom Stanfill. I’m here with my faithful sidekick and the Chuck Norris of sales training. Dr. Tab Norris. How you doing Tab?
00:26
Tab Norris
Thank you. Tom, I keep thinking the doctor is going to go away, but it just stays around. So all my doctor friends love that. Yeah. Yeah, barely graduated with a 2.5 in business.
00:42
Tom Stanfill
Totally different profession Tab.
00:44
Tab Norris
A very true,
00:46
Tom Stanfill
You’ve reached the highest level of effectiveness and professionalism and success in your industry. So, so therefore you’re a doctor. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m sure somebody is giving you a key to the city or a diploma or something.
00:59
Tab Norris
Oh yeah. Well, let’s scrub in Tom and dig right in. I don’t know. I couldn’t help myself. I love the.
01:08
Tom Stanfill
Super super that’s my word for when I’m really excited. There’s excited and super excited today. I am very super excited about having our guest on today. She personally taught me how to sell virtually to have that’s a bold statement.
01:25
Tab Norris
I like how you paused right there to let people just kind of feel that.
01:29
Tom Stanfill
No. Well, not all serious is what we’re going to talk about. Virtual selling. So virtual selling is here to stay. I mean, we w the pandemic is winding down, but as I continue to talk to decision makers and ask questions about, Hey, what percentage of your sales organization do you think is going to continue to sell virtually? And I’m continuing to hear 35%. So it’s here to stay. I’m sure. Our customers are probably used to it. Now. They’re going to continue to say, Hey, why don’t we just meet virtually? We’ve got a master it tab, but here’s what I’m seeing. I’m interested to see if you’re noticing the same thing. I’m still seeing sellers struggled with selling virtually.
02:08
Tab Norris
Oh yeah. It’s not like we’ve crossed some plane and all of a sudden he’s like, oh, whatever. I don’t know who needs to be in front of a customer. This is great. It’s almost the opposite. I feel like people are just getting worn down. I mean, they’re tired. They’re weary. I think this is very timely that we’re having this conversation with Jenna.
02:30
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. I think it probably was sparked by some meetings I’ve had recently where I could tell sellers were struggling. I thought let’s revisit this topic and who better to revisit this topic with than Genna Lepore, who joined ASLAN after selling us on her services. And seriously Tab. When we met with her company, it was a marketing firm that we had hired. We met with her from as part of the, onboarding process. We still weren’t a client yet. I met Genna and I’m like, she’s so amazing. We have to hire her. We pursued her and believe it or not, she has now joined us and is going to share with us what she’s learned about selling virtually so that we all can better at what we do. So let’s welcome, Ms. Genna Lepore Caccia.
03:19
Tab Norris
Hello.
03:21
Genna Lepore
Thanks gentleman. Flattery will get you everywhere, Tom. I appreciate that.
03:26
Tom Stanfill
Well, I didn’t, and I didn’t mention some of the other firms that you work with that you’ve worked with EMC, HubSpot, Google. You’ve been in sales for how long?
03:36
Genna Lepore
About 15 plus years give or take.
03:40
Tom Stanfill
Okay. So you’ve been 15 years in sales. How long have you been selling virtually?
03:45
Genna Lepore
Believe it or not, I had to sit back and think about this since 2012. Yeah.
03:51
Tab Norris
Before it was cool, you were virtual.
03:54
Genna Lepore
It was before there was even, this is when WebEx was still the platform of choice. Before were actually even had, webcams truly built in to our laptops, but I was selling at that time at HubSpot showing screens and doing demos that way. Yeah, I would say 2012 was probably the start of it.
04:14
Tom Stanfill
Wow. Well, so you’ve been doing all that and that’s really what impressed me so much about you is because were meeting virtually in the, as you were talking to ASLAN and the the early stages of a relationship and the way that you manage the meeting. Talk to me specifically and sold your services. I was amazed because I, at that time had never sold virtually. I had never really been in meetings virtually. I had leaned mostly on the face-to-face meeting. That was one of our key steps in the process is to go onsite and spend time with an assessment process and present our recommendation. We moved as fast as we could from phone meetings to on site. All of a sudden, we’re in this new world of having to build a relationship, meet with the right people, present our solution, all virtually and I watched you do it.
05:03
Tom Stanfill
I was amazed. You are going to walk us through what you think are the 10 most important tips for selling virtually. That, is that what I’m is that what we’re excited about today?
05:14
Genna Lepore
That’s what we’re in for today. I think some of these may be healthy reminders. Some of them may be new and potentially on Orthodox, but I think that these are key and important to every, any rep of whatever tenure it may be, regardless of what you’re selling. These are things that can truly help you thrive.
05:36
Tom Stanfill
Awesome. All right, let’s go. Number one. What’s the, what’s the number one tip of our top tips for selling virtually what’s the number one pro tip.
05:46
Genna Lepore
Number one. Number one is actually a precursor to even being on a meeting, right? This is what I call using videos to get meetings.
05:57
Tom Stanfill
That’s controversial. I remember you sending videos out to us that Avalon, and I remember thinking this is really good and it also got my attention because it wasn’t normal. It wasn’t the typical medium to get a meeting or to talk to us,
06:10
Genna Lepore
Right? There’s so many different channels in which you can engage with prospects, potential clients now, right? You have LinkedIn, you have email, you have phone video. There’s so many avenues. I have personally found video to be the most successful from an engagement standpoint. There are a couple of different tools that you can use I’ll list. Some of them. Now, my personal favorite is vid yard. There’s free and paid versions of all of these tools. Vid yard, bright Cove loom is a big one. Wistia Wistia, just a, a video platform. I prefer loom or vid yard for a couple of different reasons. A lot of it has to do with tracking. Right. What I mean by that is I send you a video tab and I, I am able to see kind of heat map. Did you watch it? How, how many times did you watch it?
07:00
Genna Lepore
Did you forward it to someone? This is a good prospecting tool, right? Also a great tool to differentiate yourself. You’re sending these videos, let’s say this is to set up a discovery call, right? You’ve done your, your homework, your pre-work your research, and you want to do something to engage a buyer.
07:25
Tom Stanfill
Now, wait, are you saying to get a meeting or you have a meeting, but you want them you’re preparing them for the meeting.
07:30
Genna Lepore
It could be both. I’ve used it both ways. That’s a good clarifying point. Right? In this instance, let’s say that I’m trying to get a meeting. We, we hear it out from and talked a lot about OCP and I’ll I’ll Tom, I’ll let you talk about kind of how you pack that into what you would put in this video, but a couple of rules of thumb when you’re sending out a video like this, ideally two, no more than two and a half minute, mark, I’ve gone over. I’ve definitely gone over three minutes.
07:57
Tom Stanfill
Plus under two minutes.
07:59
Genna Lepore
Short, concise. Yeah. Another key point here is you never just want to put a video in an email and just hope that that person opens it. It’s, it’s still semi new to some clients. I think one of the best pieces of advice I can offer is to also offer a blurb or a bulleted list under as to why you should meet with me. Okay. Now that’s all.
08:27
Tom Stanfill
Like a teaser, like a teaser, like watch this video because it helps them. See, I’ve gotten one of these types of videos before. What helps me go this video was created for me versus a generic, something that they’re sending to everybody.
08:41
Genna Lepore
That’s key. Right? Making sure that the person on the other end knows that this was personalized, that you took the time out, however many minutes to actually record them a video. There’s a, there’s a techie acronym called too long. Didn’t watch T DW. You insert that before you send the blur. The last point on this is it’s also can be used at any part of the sales process. I have used video to communicate really complex ideas later in the sales process that just email just can’t seem to convey. That person doesn’t have time to hop on another call or on the phone. I’ve used video to really hold them and myself accountable to what I’m saying so that they can understand it.
09:27
Tom Stanfill
Do you do anything to control what they see when they look at the email? Cause I’ve seen people waving at me and they’re doing something,
09:39
Tab Norris
What do they w they may not be waving at you? They sure.
09:44
Tom Stanfill
No, they were waving. None of that, other people hold up something letting me know, that, Hey, like that may be holding up my book or something like that. I’m like, okay, so this is customed to me. There any tips that you want to share about what do you, well, what image, or I guess I don’t exactly how you do it.
10:11
Genna Lepore
You can do is you would do a static image. Yeah. You can do a static image that doesn’t really show that it’s personally a lot of people wouldn’t when video first came out for this type of engagement, we use a whiteboard and they write the person’s name. Right. Okay. That way they know it’s for them. You’re curious, you’re going to click on that video, a wave, a simple wave and talk knows that person’s smile as simple as just smiling. You know that I’m inviting you into my world. Those are just cute little coy things that can definitely engage them. I have done the book. I have held up authors books that I’ve been trying to get on the phone for whatever reason, whatever props that you can leverage. And we’ll talk more about that later. That’s a really good opportunity to showcase those. There’s a, there’s animation that goes into it.
10:57
Genna Lepore
I would recommend using the Giphy versus the static version.
11:01
Tom Stanfill
Okay. So that’s what, it’s an option. I have, obviously I haven’t done this,
11:06
Genna Lepore
I.
11:07
Tab Norris
Liked the waving, the book idea,
11:10
Tom Stanfill
Waiting something, it gets your attention. I will say to your point, I got a video the other day from a seller and I get these all the time because of my title, ? I get, I mean, literally I get probably, I don’t know, 30 emails a day from people who are trying to sell me something. I noticed these videos and the first thing I try to figure out is this custom, is this to me? Or is this like one of the generics? I think that’s where the video sometimes tells that story. And sometimes it doesn’t. So just waving doesn’t do anything. I like something which, you mentioned earlier about creating a message that in the, the heart of the message you create that you’re going to deliver via video. I think it’s a good to remind people what resonates. There’s three things we want to do when we deliver a message.
12:01
Tom Stanfill
We want to capture, elevate and separate. Capture meaning we’ve got to capture their attention. Like, when you talk about the bullets that you list, the first thing that we want to communicate, the captures their attention to something about them. We always talk about lead with what’s on their whiteboard. We want to talk about a problem they have or something we know about them. If we show them a picture of them, they will always look at it. If you hold up a picture, like if somebody puts a picture of my book up, I’m going to notice it. Or if they say anything like, well, somebody said something to me the other day that I read it. It said, are you spending way too much time writing content? I’m like, yes, Somebody else has, that somebody else sent me an email that I read that said something about products, or you have you launched a product that failed.
12:53
Tom Stanfill
I’m like, well, yeah, we have launched products that failed. Like, that’s on my whiteboard, I’m in the middle of looking at how do we revamp one of our products? I’m like, so if it’s on my whiteboard, it’s going to capture my attention. The second thing is we talk about elevate. We want to elevate our position by communicating what we call a disruptive truth. How can we communicate to them that we know something about a better way to solve their problem, that they do something unique thought or truth. The last thing is we want to separate ourselves from the competition. What can we do that nobody else does. I think that’s just a good reminder. I know we’ve talked about that on our podcast before, but I think that’s, and I know that you’ve done that when I’ve looked at your emails, you do a good job of capture elevate and separate.
13:39
Genna Lepore
I mean, it’s one thing. If you’re sending a video and you get someone to click on it, right. That’s half the battle, but if you actually want them to respond and meet with you, then we have to encompass these three elements for sure.
13:50
Tom Stanfill
Great point. Alright. Number, number two, tablets. Number two. What is it? I know drum roll please. Number two, here we go.
14:02
Genna Lepore
This general. Yeah. This may seem a bit obvious, but I want to double click on this. So it’s off personal distractions. Yes, the obvious email texts, et cetera, this tip or trick is, can be a bit controversial. I think that there’s a good use case for it sometimes, which is turn off your self view. I don’t mean camera. I mean, turn off you actually looking at yourself, right. I have started to do this more frequently when there’s quite a few folks on the call and I’m not paying attention to the entire group because I’m like, you just mentioned holding up a mirror. What am I looking at? I’m looking at myself. Right, right,
14:46
Tom Stanfill
Right.
14:47
Genna Lepore
That said some of the times where I would leave it on for learning purposes is to see your facial expressions. That’s the beauty of having this virtual environment, which you wouldn’t normally have in a face-to-face setting is what do I look like? How professional, what is my am I giving that I’m not interested face? It keeps you in check, but I would highly recommend at least trying to shut that sell you off every once in a while so that you can truly be as what we call other centered and focused on exactly what that other person is saying. What do you think about that tab?
15:23
Tab Norris
I like it. I mean, I’ve, I’ve always, I think I’ve trained myself to, I get both, what I mean? I’m okay with both, because I think if you can train yourself to really keep your eyes on the people you’re serving and you just kind of have yourself over here on the side, so you can occasionally make sure that you’re looking okay. And you know that your background’s okay. I don’t know. I just kinda like keeping a check, how are my facial expressions? I think if it’s a distraction, shut it off. You know what I mean? Like if you can’t really help keep your focus on the people, that’s just my,
16:00
Tom Stanfill
That’s it, I think to tab because of your, the amount of hours that you’re on camera, you probably don’t notice yourself as much as someone like me. Who’s not on camera near as much as you are. I tend to, it is, it tends to be a distraction for me. It probably has a lot to do with how many hours you’re on. You’re on camera, where you’ve kind of ignore yourself. You can.
16:22
Tab Norris
Yeah, I think that’s true. I really don’t have the hair that you have. It’s, I don’t really have to work through.
16:28
Tom Stanfill
I’ve got to work through the hair tab and the age, the wrinkles, anything else though? Distractions, Jenna, that you,
16:40
Genna Lepore
Also, I think this goes into making sure your actual background to have mentioned back on your actual background is aesthetically pleasing, et cetera, because I know too often having been on the receiving end, right. I am often distracted. If there’s things that are going on behind me, I lose my train of thought. That’s such a, that seems to be such an obvious statement, but truly, I mean, I’ve had folks have these wild chairs, they’ve got chairs. Literally. I had someone sitting in a gaming chair and I was just completely distracted the entire.
17:14
Tom Stanfill
Behind them or in a weird place or like the lighting is all people. Yeah. It, I think it’s really important to create a professional environment. It looks like the best you can a newsroom you’re on television. I mean, even like when you watch television, you can see, people are like, I was watching some coach and some NFL show and there was something in the back and when you move, it would like be weird behind his head. I was just constantly distracted by what was funny. It’s a good point. The other thing I saw on a call the other day is somebody was getting chat while I was on the call. Very distracting for messages coming in. I’m like, what does that say? I mean, I, yeah, that’s a great point. All right, let’s move. Number three. What’s number three, Jenna. Number two, number one, use video to get more meetings, number two, avoid personal distractions or distractions, and then three what’s number three.
18:10
Genna Lepore
Leverage your behind the scenes and engage props. Leverage are behind the scene, engaged props. This is where you kind of have an unfair advantage of Dean virtually than you would face-to-face. Okay. I, I am a big VR, a visual learner. Okay. I’m selling or training, I love leveraging props and the right place in the right time. What I mean by that is leverage. Whether it be sharing a piece of collateral or actually using a whiteboard, you ever have you done that time on sales calls, leveraging an actual physical, tangible whiteboard, and doing a channel.
18:51
Tom Stanfill
I have not done that. I’ve pulled up my iPad and join the meeting with my iPad. I’ve got two screens going, and then I can write on my iPad as my way of kind of having a whiteboard. I like the idea of I’ve seen you do that. I thought that I think that’s very effective.
19:11
Genna Lepore
I actually, I did learn this from tab where we actually have a second camera. You actually have a second camera. You flip to that second camera to demonstrate a more comprehensive point on a whiteboard like you would in-person, there’s something about that creates so much movement on the call and keeps it dynamic. That you’re really, I mean, if they, if someone wasn’t paying attention to you, when you were speaking, they’re sure going to be paying attention to you when you’re drawing.
19:37
Tom Stanfill
Well, predictability determines impact. Anything you do that’s unpredictable is going to get their attention.
19:43
Tab Norris
Yep. I remember we had one client that had us come in and do virtual training for their salespeople because of that, the John, one of our salespeople that he said that he was, why were watching him sell to them? They’re like, man, we just make our people do it. Like you do it in a big part of that was when you jumped on that second camera and you started writing on the flip chart. We’re like, man, this is awesome. This is really powerful.
20:13
Tom Stanfill
You got to invest in equipment. You gotta invest in the camera and get a second camera, get a good camera. Excellent point. Anything else? What else?
20:23
Genna Lepore
There’s, there’s one piece of this that I think is a good precursor, which is I’ve done this where I’ve actually sent an email. If I knew there’s going to be a lot of people on the call, especially in it’s C-level executives, I want to know what type of learners they are. Right. What I mean by that is so I’m a visual learner, whether you’re an auditory learner or you’re a hands-on learner hands on learner, mean to me, somebody that needs to see a demo, right? They’re also visual learners, but in the virtual world, I’m talking about the demos. I have asked at the top of the call, what way do you learn? They look at me a little funny, and then when they understand it, they’re like, oh yeah, no, no. I need to see something. Then, so you’re able to pull it up on the fly and that really is impactful.
21:06
Genna Lepore
I think that really goes a long way, which you can sorta do that face to face, but not always.
21:12
Tom Stanfill
W some of our clients that we’ve worked with, we’ve gotten them to change their process because they’re used to going on site and doing demos. Yeah. What they’ve done is they’ll ship the product to the customer potential customer, and then they’ll walk them through the demo. They are the, they’re all the tangent, what do you call the kind of learner? The cosmetic is a kinetic learner. It’s like, they’re I forget. Yeah. Did they learn by touching, doing whatever that’s fanatic? Yeah. The other name escapes me, but yeah. So they, so that’s what they do. They send them. Like for us, we could send out our content or training books so they could hold it so we could walk them through it while they’re touching it and holding it. So I think that’s a good point. All right. Number four. What’s number four. Let’s move on to our fourth tip.
22:02
Tom Stanfill
Sure. 10 pro tips.
22:04
Genna Lepore
Number four is being intentional about creating a deeper dialogue. This is all about engagement. And I, this to me.
22:17
Tom Stanfill
Is I totally.
22:19
Genna Lepore
Agree with you. This is a tough one. This is also, I think this personally separates the really good field reps from really great virtual sellers. People who can do this can do they’re their what’s the word I’m looking for ambidextrous in terms of being able to kind of translate in both.
22:41
Tom Stanfill
We’ll clean that up. Thank you.
22:46
Genna Lepore
So this is actually truly calling out. People by name on calls and asking, other centered questions. This is peeling back the onion. This is going three layers deep. It is so much harder to do this here than it is virtual. One of the things that I personally like to do either throughout the call, or particularly at the end of a call is ask it’s a temperature check. You know what I mean? When I say that temperature check. So, ask us something on a scale of one to 10, one being, we nailed it 10, excuse me. One being, we flopped 10 being, we nailed it. 10 being you’re going to move forward, whatever the gap is. I want to ask those questions because I don’t want to assume anything, somebody could have been smiling and head-nodding with me the whole time. I asked that question and they were like, we’re a five.
23:43
Genna Lepore
I’m like, well, you’re five. Wow. All right, where’s the gap. Where’s the, how do I get you to a 10? Right. That’s really making sure that you’re not in the virtual environment. I’m only seeing, pretty much from the neck up. I can only, I can’t really see the rest of the body language. Being super intentional about the questions you’re asking to go deeper and also making sure that you’re not assuming anything is super, super important in the virtual environment.
24:08
Tom Stanfill
I think a lot of people will understand that and agree with that point. I think the challenge is knowing how to do it. Like you, I was, when I first met you, I was kind of in the background and quote, unquote, hiding, right. While you guys had your meeting, but I was participating and halfway through the meeting, you called me out. Yeah. You called me out. Which is what I, I first like, okay, this person knows what this woman knows what she’s doing. You called me and said, Tom, your facial expression looks like that. We may not be hitting the mark. You said something along those lines. Or is there a concern or what is your thoughts about, and then you said it, you said, I don’t remember exactly what you said, but you gave a reason why you pulled me in and because of my experience or because of something I was doing versus just, Hey, what do you think it was more than that.
25:05
Tom Stanfill
So talk to me about that. Why, how do you do that? Where does the confidence come from to do that?
25:13
Genna Lepore
I think that in this kind of overlaps was one of the other tips we’re talking about, which kind of bleeds into like building rapport, which is coming, but making sure that you realize that there it is so crucial to not lose your edge just because you’re in front of a camera. What I mean by that is that confidence that you would have in a room if you were presenting and you helped add the energy that really needs to come through 10 X on a virtual environment. If you don’t do that, it’s yours to lose. The deal is likely yours to lose. Where does the confidence come from? I think it’s, it’s a matter of really honing your personal skills. I might be a little forward brass if you will. Some, some may say.
25:58
Tom Stanfill
Never, ever, I would say competent. Very competent. Yeah,
26:02
Genna Lepore
No. I think a lot of it comes down to saying this is so cheesy, but I have to say it, I mean, truly saying it with a smile or, or backing it up with truth. We talk a lot on this podcast about truth. I’m asking you because insert answer, which truly I remember that moment that you’re talking about, and I remember that you were completely disengaged. There was a moment where I needed your input because no one else on the call could answer that. Having the confidence to do that is having the confidence to run virtual calls. You have to be able to know the room and being able to orchestrate if you will like a teacher, those that are unattentive, those that are over attentive and they’re just dominating the call. You need to be able to it. It’s I think the best way to become really skilled at this is to do it constantly.
26:56
Genna Lepore
It’s a healthy balance and a tap dance. The dynamic on the other end is going to change. You need to confidently manage the call without being, what’s the word I’m looking for?
27:11
Tom Stanfill
Well, you’re saying without fear of failure or without,
27:14
Genna Lepore
Without fear of failure. Yeah,
27:17
Tom Stanfill
Go ahead. Tab.
27:18
Tab Norris
I was gonna say, and you don’t want to be a teacher. You don’t want to come across as Bobby uni. It’s it’s your, the way you communicate. It matters too. Right? Tom, I haven’t heard from you. Please tell me what you thinking. It’s like, you don’t do that. You do it in a way that’s very natural and you’re confident and you’re like, Tom, I really need your input here. So, I mean, I know that matters, doesn’t it just, maybe it all is his confidence.
27:43
Tom Stanfill
Well, and I, I love the idea of, of, the fear idea, because I think people, well, I also love what I want to acknowledge that time. Cause I think that’s super important. We don’t want to be above or below them. Right. I think we typically move in one of those. Well, what do you think? You know, you’re not talking. You should talk or we put ourselves below them. Oh, your CEO. I don’t I’m I, what do you think? It, neither one of them is accurate. We are peers and you’re helping them solve the problem. I think that the confidence comes from twofold. One, we make fear a bigger deal. Like you’re a failure is a bigger, no, what if you did? You said, Tom, what do you think? And I’d have gum. I don’t know. I really don’t want to comment right now. You just move on.
28:23
Tom Stanfill
It’s not, it’s not a big deal. I’ll have to think about that. I’ve I’ve had people go, Bob, do you have any thoughts about that? Because actually it was a really poor question. Cause I didn’t position the question. Well, right. And then Bob’s like, not really. I go, okay, well let’s move on. I mean, it’s not a big deal, but if I think what you’re saying, what would happen naturally, if were face-to-face in that same meeting, Jenna, I would have engaged fully. I would have talked a lot. You would have read my body language. I would have said, I would’ve said probably 10 times more than I would have said virtually. If you don’t ask those questions, you’re not going to pull me in. You did pull me in and I started engaging in the dialogue, picked up. The second thing that you said that I think is really important is prepare your questions.
29:05
Tom Stanfill
When I prepare my questions, because I know who’s going to be on the call and I’m like, I need to draw this person in, how am I going to do that? Like this guy, I remember being on a call, a virtual call and I had to pull a global person who was kind of last, just they weren’t that connect to the project that I knew they weren’t going to talk different language. Not that bought into the process. I knew they were really, probably not very aligned with Avalon. I specifically prep the question by saying you, this program has got to be successful globally, right? If we just make this a US-based program and we don’t understand the needs globally going to fail. So Bob, what do you think? I always go with Bob. I don’t know why.
29:46
Tab Norris
I love that.
29:47
Tom Stanfill
Bob, Frank, Ralph, I go with these very old names. He’s kind of 1950s names, but anyway, and then he, he chimed in. I think preparing that is, is preparing how you’re going to position that question versus just asking it is critical.
30:01
Genna Lepore
The, the intentional element, but also the fear is really is crucial here because it’s also, there’s something to be said. It’s like selling inside sales, right? As well. You can’t be afraid of awkward silence. One way that I love to do this is if I’m calling someone out and that person’s just disengaged, or I need them to be engaged and I’m sharing the screen, I stopped sharing the screen. Now I’m looking at just faces. I’m honing in on that person. There may be a moment where that person’s just not going to answer, or they may, they might move on and you’re gonna move on. There may be a moment where the wheels are just turning because they were probably distracted or whatnot. You can’t be afraid of awkward silence on these calls. Yeah.
30:47
Tom Stanfill
Well, want to say one more thing about the fear thing too, is it’s. When you think about the fear thing, it’s, don’t be afraid to lose because you’re going to lose anyway. If they don’t talk, if you don’t get them engaged and they’re not telling you what’s happening, and you’re not getting them to talk about their decision drivers of what’s important, you’re going to lose anyway. So, because I think a lot of our fear comfortable, if I ask that question and they don’t like it, and then I’ll lose the deal. If, if you can’t get them engaged, you’re going to lose.
31:18
Tab Norris
Well, I totally agree. Something I’ve done and I’d love to have your opinion on this worked for me. It was of a risk, like six people, global different languages, English, not the first language with some of the folks. I had about three people hiding and they were important and they needed to be part of the discussion. And I couldn’t I’d call on them. And they grunt. I mean, literally I was losing. It was just, they weren’t. I went to chat and I said, Hey, I really need all six of you. I think it’s really important that I get your understanding of this. I want, I want to get your insights based on your region, your sales team, in your region, can you put it in chat? And, and they actually did that. It was a way to call on people. You know what I mean?
32:04
Tab Norris
It was like John. Okay, John. Excellent. Now that’s interesting because you’re saying that you’ve got twice, as many as Jimmy over here, when all of a sudden it created some dialogue. Once I did that, they started engaging, but it was almost like, it was just, you’re always looking for as many tools as you can to get them in jazz. I’ve done it with a poll too. I quickly popped the poll together. I just said, I want to pop a poll up here. I just want to hear from everybody. I popped it up and I go, Hey, who was the one who said one? Who said to just another way to create some engagement?
32:37
Tom Stanfill
That’s a great idea. It’s funny, as a salesperson might think, oh, I’m doing a bad job. People aren’t engaging. They could be insecure about their inability to speak the language you don’t like. The customer’s like, I don’t know what to say, or I’m kinda lost, or you seem really sharp. I don’t know what we’re talking about. Cause I feel stupid. We typically want to, before we leave this topic, I also think of when we’re presenting, kind of been talking about the discovery process or our dialogue, but when you’re presenting, is there anything Jenna, cause I know you I’ve seen you do this. I mean, you’re very good at, is there anything that you think through when you’re presenting your solution or any best practices around them to keep them engaged, like turn the camera off or anything else that you do?
33:25
Genna Lepore
Yeah. So, so I’d mentioned just turning the camera off, especially when I’m calling on someone. For sure. There’s also, and this goes back to what we talked about. Like how do they learn? May want to send them something in advance, but in terms of presentation mode, no, I think we hit on everything. Honestly. I think we hit on all of that.
33:45
Tom Stanfill
Tab, I’m looking at the clock here and it looks like we’ve been going for about 30 minutes. I’m thinking if you’re with me.
33:52
Tab Norris
By the way, they’ve been a great 30 minutes. This has been a great…
33:56
Tom Stanfill
I love the first four tips blown my mind. I’m going to better, but I’m thinking maybe we’ve turned this into a two part series.
34:05
Tab Norris
Well, I I’m, I think that’s a great idea because we can only contain so much.
34:10
Tom Stanfill
Do you think a series would be two part would be more than two? So two parts.
34:13
Tab Norris
We’re going to call it a two-part mini series. What we’re going to call it that little love boat used to do that occasionally. I don’t know.
34:21
Tom Stanfill
To park. So we’re going to stop here. This is going to be, this is going to be part one and then we’re the next part of the mini series is going to be part two. Guys, thanks for joining us for another episode of SALES with ASLAN and join us next week for part two.
