The Value of Software Review Sites. With Bertrand Hazard [Episode 501]

Bertrand Hazard, VP of Marketing at TrustRadius, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Bertrand says the single biggest challenge facing sales reps today is to personalize every single conversation they are having with their prospect.

Buyers want to hear that the solution fits their specific use case, especially in complex SaaS products. They also want to know that the company behind the technology will support them. Sales and Marketing need to build trusted relationships.

Bertrand believes the number one required skill is asking the right questions and listening to understand. Bertrand enlists existing and prospective customers to talk with his sales and marketing teams during training.

Andy suggests listening must be without bias or judgment. Bertrand agrees that listening is not easy. It must be objective. Use a consultant for a win/loss analysis. Reps need to probe deeper with their questions, to get to truth.

Bertrand tells young reps that marriage teaches listening, and fast understanding of meaning, even when all the words are not used. What you hear spoken is not necessarily the meaning. Companies should teach listening.

After a response, ask questions that clarify meaning. Ask multiple questions to get to the core ‘why.’ Bertrand says all areas of a company need to listen, which will eventually help sales. Also, replay what was said. It shows actual interest.

TrustRadius is known as a review platform for technology products, offering authentic, in-depth, peer user insight. For tech vendors, it provides them customers on the record, so they can use that content to engage with buyers.

Any vendor can come to TrustRadius, have their product listed, and ask their customers to write reviews on TrustRadius in a standard template. This is completely free. There are also additional paid vendor services.

The TrustRadius paid service is to run programs on the vendors’ behalf to get many more of their customers on the record. Once content is on the site, vendors can use it in promotions. TrustRadius can push reviews to the vendor site.

Bertrand gives examples of large and small organizations that use TrustRadius. The ICP is a company who wants to use customers as their voice. The personas are the CMO and VP of Marketing, and sometimes, the VP of Sales.

Customers more than ever have the ability to know beforehand what the derived value of a product is going to be. Bertrand says it’s scary to vendors not to be in control of product messaging. Bertrand discusses trust and reviews.

Social trust is eroding. Bertrand says to review on TrustRadius you need a LinkedIn profile. A human will check if you worked for a competitor to the reviewed vendor. TrustRadius does not convert visitors into leads.