What are your sales principles? With Bridget Gleason [Episode 498]

How can you move beyond closing deals to true greatness? Strong principles are a great place to start.

Bridget Gleason is VP of Sales for Logz.io and my regular partner on Front Line Fridays.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This is the books episode. Bridget has been rereading the Sandler books. Bridget likes speaking the same language as the team. Everyone in Boston has been Sandler trained.

Bridget sees Sandler as a way of thinking, talking about upfront contracts, the pain funnel, and uncovering and understanding a situation before people will make a decision.

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.” — Harrington Emerson

The core principle of Amazon is, you start with the customer, and work your way backward. Sandler also has a focus on the customer. Bridget suggests that all sales methodologies revolve around the customer.

Sales automation tech must help the customer gather information to make a good decision with the least investment of time as possible, or it is a method without a principle.

The Predictable Revenue Model is tottering. It is driven by salesperson activity, without thinking about the customer. Bridget sells by the principle of serving the customer, and her methods assist her to serve them.

About 95% of the conversations Andy sees on one online sales community are about process and technology, not about the customer. The trend will not end in a good spot.

We go through phases of customer centric selling. It is time for another wave. Bridget brings Jacco van der Kooij in for training, and he stresses customers and techniques. Bridget says to find the customers first, and she wants tools to do that.

The key need is for sales automation technology that comes at sales from the perspective of the customer. Who develops that, will transform the industry. Bridget talks about finding the customer’s preferred communication channel.

Andy read a new book by Stephen Shapiro deprecating ‘best practices.’ Innovation doesn’t come from business ‘plagiarism.’ People stop thinking. Stephen says, “Don’t think outside the box; make a better box.”

Adopt the “Indiana Jones Principle.” Go into the field and talk to your customers. Watch them use your product. This is missing from methodologies. We are too remote. Some customers do want to be remote.

You can sell virtually, but still see the customer, at some point. We need to spend more time, in general, with customers.

The Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul was formerly Accelerate! with Andy Paul.