How to Fix the Failing Sales Model. With Jacco Van Der Kooij [Episode 528]

Jacco vanderKooij,  Founder and CEO of Winning by Design, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Jacco says the single biggest challenge facing sales professionals is that they are unable to execute a proper sales process consistently. The process depends mostly on artistry.

Sales organizations are failing, and they have weak processes.

Jacco notes that a procedure is not necessarily a sales process. A process is doing something that is proven to work, and doing more of it, while stopping what doesn’t work.

Jacco Prepared a Prezi on the new sales process, “The Art of Making Love,” or doing sales right over and over again. If you don’t have any customers that ‘love’ you, you have not been doing it right.

Jacco recently showed the Prezi at an event, “Flying Upside-Down.” People from various disciplines presented for startup founders.

Jacco says to think of SaaS sales as a technology that has had no innovation over the past decade. Nothing has changed in the predictable revenue model in 10 years. It persistently fails today. Now we need an innovation.

New tools have not produced increased levels of performance. A two-touch sales organization doesn’t work. Jacco explains the reasons. He calls it the triangle of death.

Jacco urges changing from sales-centric to customer-centric. SaaS will evolve. Revenue is made as the customer is successful. The sales mindset is outdated. Think Committing, not closing; Trading, not negotiating.

The trade in the heart of sales is the customer’s time for the salesperson’s value. Most business should come in the customer success system. The salesperson should work to make the customer happy. That flips the current model.

Sales is service. Jeff Bezos said, “We don’t make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.” The methodology must become customer-centric: experiences, not stages.

The experiences are emotional steps. Salespeople need to recognize what experience the customer is having to know how to educate them. Don’t go to a pitch. Guide and inform.

Jacco uses TALKER as an acronym for Tone, Ask questions, Listen actively, Keeping notes, Elaborate on the conversation, Repeat what you’ve heard. Don’t let there be problems from miscommunication.

Qualification today is based on an old process. The salesperson gets all the value from BANT. The customer gets nothing. This needs to change. When organizations treat how they sell, as important as what they sell, then sales will work.