How to Win Customers from Your Competition, with Anthony Iannarino [Episode 696]

Anthony Iannarino, bestselling author of The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need, and The Lost Art of Closing: Winning the Ten Commitments that Drive sales, and now, Eat Their Lunch: Winning Customers Away from Your Competition, joins me again on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Anthony has a stack of books to read. Learn every day. Col. John Boyd, the developer of the OODA loop, taught combining disparate things to create something greater. Learn from many diverse areas.
• Besides situational knowledge from your work experience, continually figure out what else is interesting and useful that your clients might care about or need.
• In Eat Their Lunch, Anthony says to learn what trends are going to impact your client’s business. What should clients be thinking about? Are they ready for change?
• People don’t know their skill level. 90% think they are above-average drivers. K. Anders Ericsson, the expertise expert, said, “I’ve been walking for 48 years but I don’t feel that I’m getting any better at it.” To improve takes efforts.
• Anthony notes books on his reading list. Read things you disagree with and look for applications. Eat Their Lunch teaches how Anthony sells.
• The relationship matters more than anything else. You should be competent, smart, and able to challenge someone’s view and still be known, liked, and trusted. Having a relationship is better than not.
• The process doesn’t win deals. People do. At the minimum, your prospects need to be positively neutral about you. In millions of years, social grooming has not changed much.
• Anthony contrasts buying a book to buying a house. Some decisions are still super relational. You can learn about trusted advisors in the Old Testament. People still need them for better views and insight. People are alike.
• Buyers need to mitigate risks and they look to a trusted human to help them. Travel to see your clients. Build relationships that will matter to your success.
• The sales professional has the knowledge of their product application and of the industry. How is the client to know what they need, without a trusted advisor? Supply the advice for their need.
• Clients think changing is difficult but don’t consider that not changing is more difficult. Use messages to trade value for meetings.
• SaaS products were created to disrupt businesses but their sales process is based on compliance. Scaling an inefficient process does not make it more effective. Anthony notes ineffective pitches on LinkedIn.