Selling Change with Insight – Online Training
1) 10-minute video on Customer Interview.
- Why interview the customer?
- Where Change Stories Fail and how to avoid pitfalls by asking the correct questions.
- Key questions to ask
- Each salesperson will interview a customer for 20-minutes so that they aren’t making stuff up in their Change Story. They must be able to share the specific problems/costs/risks to the customer’s operation in the absence of having Success Factor’s unique capability.
2) 90-minute Webinar- with 25 people
- Change Stories vs Success Stories
- Why customers don’t change- Status quo and confidence bias
- How to overcome Biases with a risk assessment of the status quo and a baseline reality check.
- How Change Stories are like a Trojan horse and get your message past the customer’s wall of resistance to change.
- How to deliver Change Stories as a story, a series of questions or a combination of the two in a conversation.
3) 60-minute Online workshop with each VP Sales Group
- A 60-minute online coaching session with each of the VP’s teams of circa 6 to 7 salespeople
- The reason for the small groups is that it’s my experience that salespeople get bored after hearing more than 6 stories.
- Each of the six salespeople will share their 2 to 3 minute story along with the top three questions to ask.
- Each salesperson will then receive feedback from the group on how their Change Story could be improved.
- By hearing six stories, the salespeople will hear great, average and poor stories. They’ll then be able to benchmark what works and doesn’t.
- Each salesperson will then edit their story and deliver the edited story to the group. The quality of the edited story should improve by 2X.
- These stories can be video recorded.
On-going Coaching
- After the workshop, we recommend that your weekly sales meeting or QBR starts off by salespeople sharing their key customer wins as Change Stories and stored in the SF.com Customer Story app.
- This is a useful exercise because salespeople use the same skillset to uncover the reasons a past customer bought as they do to determine why a future customer will buy.
- Not only will peer feedback improve each individual story, the group will also gain from their pooled knowledge on insights they can share why current customers are changing/buying.
- The result is that sales will be able to share compelling Change Stories that resonate with customers, clarify business value, and create a sense of urgency.
Testimonials
Maryna Kazlova, Senior Training and Development, SAP
“Michael Harris has designed and is successfully delivering an Insight Selling course for all SAP Sales professionals. These virtual instructor-led sessions are very popular with our audience and get fantastic feedback – for the effectiveness of the taught techniques, innovative content and for the highly interactive delivery style. Personally, I am honored to work with such a professional trainer and designer as Michael”
Heidi Tucker, Vice President, Global Alliances – InsideView Inc
“Michael Harris provided sales and storytelling coaching for our Channel Sales team over the course of several months. He introduced our team to the concept of storytelling using insights to better engage prospects and customers in relevant, meaningful business conversations. The techniques he trained us to use have dramatically transformed our sales approach and our productivity. Our team has a much stronger appreciation for how they help prospects and more deeply understand their business and decision-making process. Michael expertly engaged our team with practical tools, coaching, critique in the storytelling workshop (and in 1:1 sessions afterward). He did so with fun and laughter. His personal approach was the key to getting our team of highly seasoned Channel Sales executives to look differently at their sales approach – and open their minds to engaging prospects in a very different way. Many of our Channel Team members said that Michael’s training was the best training they’d ever attended. I would highly recommend Michael to any sales organization that is looking to engage with prospects in a more relevant, elegant and effective way.”