I love it when buyers share their perspective on sales process. There’s no better source for “what works in sales” than the people deciding which vendors to invest in.
So it’s no surprise that the best sales content I’ve read in a long time comes from a buyer sharing how they buy. Today, I’m going to highlight my favorite parts along with a little bit of my own commentary.
The post was written by Howard Holton, CEO at GigaOm. His post is a summary of what he’s heard from a “CISO colleague” along with his endorsement of the perspective.
Let’s dive in to the highlights, and I’ll link the full post at the end.
Highlight one:
“Every vendor tells me their product is revolutionary. You know what’s also revolutionary? Getting fired because your “revolutionary” product bricked the payment system during Black Friday. I’ve seen it happen. It wasn’t the vendor who lost their job.”
Key takeaway:
Sellers all sound the same. Every vendor has “innovation.” Every vendor has “industry awards.” Every vendor has “cutting-edge AI.”
But while we are blabbering on about how great we are, our prospect is wondering: “Where is this most likely to go wrong? And, if it goes wrong, how devastating would it be to me and my team?”
Highlight two:
“The vendor who won my biggest contract didn’t have the best product. They had:
• A reference from a CISO I trusted
• An implementation plan that didn’t require overtime from my burned-out team
• A CEO who personally committed to our success
• Proof they’d done this exact deployment 50 times before
Their competitor had better tech and was 30% cheaper. They also had a 12-month implementation timeline and no relevant references.
Easy decision.”
Key takeaway:
This one is scary. Imagine a forecast call where you tell your boss “my champion told me we have better tech and we are 30% cheaper.”
Sounds like an easy win.
Now, you know that your “champion” could be telling their boss: “This other vendor is more expensive and doesn’t have all the functionality. But it’s the safer bet.”
Your easy win quickly becomes a shocking loss.
Highlight three:
“You tell me features. Tell me what fires you put out and whose job you saved.
You show ROI spreadsheets. Show me CISOs who didn’t get fired after deploying your product.
You push for the enterprise deal. Let me pilot first. Let me look like a hero internally before I bet my career.”
Key takeaway:
You already know features don’t sell – you need to sell “value.” But are you selling the value your prospect cares about?
For most buyers “value” is a combination of “the safest bet to work + most likely to make me look good.”
Highlight four:
“Let’s have an honest conversation. If you keep selling products while we’re buying career insurance, we’re all wasting time.”
Key takeaway:
The job market sucks. Many people (including buyers) are in survival mode.
Are you selling an unrealistic dream? Or, are you selling “career insurance?”
If you are selling the dream, you may find yourself losing to the rep selling insurance.
You can read the full post here: LinkedIn Post
