The 3 Big Questions to Answer FOR Sales

Developing a sales strategy and turning it into a process that salespeople can execute successfully can seem daunting for those who haven't done it before.

After 3 decades in strategic B2B and edtech sales, I've found that zeroing in on the answers to the 3 Big Questions for Sales Success will provide the direction and support sales needs to keep them focused and generating more predictable outcomes.

The 3 Big Questions are:

1. Whom do I talk with?
2. What do I say?
3. Why should they care?

Drop me a note with the words Prospect Profile, and I'll send you the template to work on this for your business.

Question 1: Whom Do I Talk With?

To answer this, I break it down into 4 steps.

1. The Target Market: What defines the "A", "B", and "C" segments of your market?
2. Other Characteristics: What's the next level beyond the basics? It could be lots of things like whom your prospects serve as their customers, whether they're a private or public company, etc.
3. Buyer Personas: Understanding how different types of people feel about prospective suppliers and how they make decisions about goods and services is important to understanding the prospect's decision making and buying process.
4. How Do Your Benefits Map to Buyer Types: Salespeople should have a very clear understanding of how the benefits you offer map to different buyer persona types.

Question 2: What Do I Say?

Marketing owns product, price, place, and promotion, which includes messaging.

But messaging means more than what the sales collateral, call scripts, emails, and posts have to say. For Sales, messaging is more about what questions are asked and why they're asked.

Sales Playbooks are the best way to ensure that salespeople do a great job of qualifying prospects.

As part of those playbooks, salespeople need assets that will improve their success and streamline their efforts.

Drop me a note, and I'll send examples of these to you:

• VITO letter and email
• Call Script
• "Power" Email
• Sales Project Plan

Question 3: Why Should They Care?

Quantifying the value you offer — either projected for startups, or based on what you've done for others as an emerging or more established company — will do two things for your salespeople.

1. Establish Credibility

One of the best ways for sales to capture a prospect's attention is to be able to forecast what the ROI could be for the prospect.

2. Start the Conversation on Value Instead of Price

One of the best responses a salesperson can get when projecting the prospect's ROI is a challenge that goes something like, "How did you come up with that number?" You've got them curious about the VALUE you have to offer instead of the price you charge.

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These 3 Big Questions aren't, of course, all there is to creating a sales strategy that can then be mapped to a process that makes sales more predictable.

What these questions do is focus the thinking and then the direction on where the best opportunities should be found and for how to engage them.

Please feel free to share your thoughts, and let me know how I can be helpful.