0
SPEAKER_02
Folks, if you re liking what you re getting from 30MPC, the number one way you can support us is by subscribing to our newsletter.
0
SPEAKER_02
Every week, you only get two emails.
0
SPEAKER_02
On Monday, you get a content rollup of everything that dropped last week, and on Fridays, I pick one topic and I personally write a deep dive on things like how to cold call, how to run a discovery call, or even how to hire an AE.
0
SPEAKER_02
So if you re liking what you re getting here, take two seconds, go to the show notes, you ll see a button to subscribe to our newsletter, or you can go to 30MPC.com backslash newsletter and do it there.
0
SPEAKER_02
We ll catch you soon.
0
SPEAKER_02
Cheers.
0
SPEAKER_04
Good morning, everybody, and welcome to another episode of 30 Minutes to Presidents Club.
0
SPEAKER_04
I m your host, Nick Siegelski, joined with my co-host, Jen Allen Knuth, and today we have Michelle at Procore.
0
SPEAKER_04
She is an enterprise account executive, and this was one of my favorite episodes in the history of 30 Minutes to Presidents Club.
0
SPEAKER_04
Jen, why should people look
0
SPEAKER_01
This is one of the best episodes I ve ever heard.
0
SPEAKER_01
What Michelle gets really into is how you show up and deliver an exceptional on-site meeting with your clients, something many of us in tech have not yet had to do because we were selling in COVID.
0
SPEAKER_01
So there s so much to learn, whether you ve done them a hundred times or it s your first one coming up.
0
SPEAKER_01
Michelle dropped some fire on this episode.
0
SPEAKER_04
And a three, a two, a one, Texas Hold em.
0
SPEAKER_04
Today s tip to optimize your sales day is brought to you by Boomerang.
0
SPEAKER_04
If you get an email and the action required on that email is going to take you less than two minutes to do, do it on the spot.
0
SPEAKER_04
It s not worth adding it to your to-do list, having to look at the item, remember what you need to do.
0
SPEAKER_04
That s going to take you more than two minutes anyway.
0
SPEAKER_04
So do it on the spot, get it off your plate.
0
SPEAKER_04
Now, we documented our best templates and tips to help you optimize your sales day with our friends at Boomerang, and you can get that documentation for free at the link in the show notes.
0
SPEAKER_04
Today s prospecting tip is brought to you by Supercadence by Influ2, which helps cut through the noise of oversaturated prospecting channels.
0
SPEAKER_04
And if you want to get your prospect s attention, you got to do stuff a robot would never do.
0
SPEAKER_04
One of my favorite plays is getting warm introductions to the accounts that I m targeting via salespeople who work at that account.
0
SPEAKER_04
Salespeople help salespeople.
0
SPEAKER_04
Another approach could be using Supercadence to run SDR ads to put a face to the name.
0
SPEAKER_04
We worked with Influ2 to put together a special toolkit on ways to humanize your outreach, which you can get for free at the link in the show notes.
0
SPEAKER_03
This week s actionable prospecting tactic is from Sixth Sense, who shows you the prospects who are most likely to buy so you can get more meetings with fewer activities.
0
SPEAKER_03
Personalizing cold emails requires you to only change the first paragraph in a trigger template.
0
SPEAKER_03
All you have to do is tie the research to the problem you solve in paragraph one, and then switch that out while you leave paragraphs two and three, your solution and call to action, exactly the same.
0
SPEAKER_03
And so we are giving you six of these trigger templates with our partners at Sixth Sense.
0
SPEAKER_03
The link is in the show notes.
0
SPEAKER_04
Otter AI s Otter Pilot for Sales gives you the freedom to sell on your discovery calls by taking notes for you.
0
SPEAKER_04
One of the best ways to deepen your discovery is to ask your prospect about the impetus behind their goals.
0
SPEAKER_04
So when a prospect tells me they want to advertise on more sales podcasts, I ll say, well, it s not every day that you wake up and decide you want to sponsor a podcast.
0
SPEAKER_04
What s causing you to even explore this in the first place?
0
SPEAKER_04
Now, we put together the ultimate discovery checklist with our friends at Otter AI, which you can get for free at the link in the show notes.
0
SPEAKER_04
All right, Michelle, welcome to the show.
0
SPEAKER_04
We start every single episode with your top three actionable takeaways.
0
SPEAKER_04
So let s get your three.
0
SPEAKER_00
Number one, do targeted call prep.
0
SPEAKER_00
For every call with a customer or prospect, I m pulling a Salesforce report that tells me
0
SPEAKER_00
What similar companies I ve worked with before, or another AE at my company has worked with before, what those customers have bought, when they bought, and why they bought, and using that information to then frame up the conversation with this new prospect.
0
SPEAKER_00
Number two, don t use bullet points in your follow-up.
0
SPEAKER_00
The beauty of the number system is when you call your prospect or your customer after the meeting and can say, Hey, on point number three, sub point one, maybe if you have sub points,
0
SPEAKER_00
It s really easy for you to go through an email and stay organized as you re talking to your prospect and your customer.
0
SPEAKER_04
Beautiful.
0
SPEAKER_04
All right, round us out.
0
SPEAKER_04
Give us bullet point number three.
0
SPEAKER_00
Tip number three, do bring something to write on and write with to your onsite meetings.
0
SPEAKER_00
For SaaS sellers, it might seem totally, totally counterintuitive to bring paper and pens and pencils to meetings, but to help people stay engaged for both your prospect or your customer and for yourself.
0
SPEAKER_00
write everything down on paper and encourage the people in your meeting to write everything down on paper too as well.
0
SPEAKER_00
Amazing.
0
SPEAKER_04
So after I have gotten on my electric bicycle, gone to my friendly neighborhood OfficeMax and bought some paper and pens, we were talking on the pre-show and you were telling me that you ve done over 100 onsite meetings.
0
SPEAKER_04
And when you get onsite with a customer, your close rate skyrockets.
0
SPEAKER_04
And I was asking you about your onsite meetings.
0
SPEAKER_04
And I was thinking, okay, maybe you show up for 45 minutes, you meet and greet and you leave.
0
SPEAKER_04
And you said, no, I ll sometimes be there the entire day.
0
SPEAKER_04
There are times it will have six hour onsite meetings with a customer.
0
SPEAKER_04
And so can you just start and talk to me about these six hour onsites?
0
SPEAKER_04
Give me some context around where do they happen in sales cycle?
0
SPEAKER_04
What s the purpose of them?
0
SPEAKER_04
And give me maybe the high level of what gets covered in one of those six hour onsites.
0
SPEAKER_00
For a longer form onsite, it s usually a little bit deeper in the sales process.
0
SPEAKER_00
So you re probably somewhere in the stage three
0
SPEAKER_00
evaluation zone of your sales cycle.
0
SPEAKER_00
Often, I ve used onsite meetings, pitched an onsite meeting as a way to get from the discovery phase of a deal into a deeper evaluation phase of the deal.
0
SPEAKER_00
Also a great way to get wide and to get high.
0
SPEAKER_00
If you re in a deal, and you re siloed, and maybe you re just working with a few people, and it s important to get wide or higher in your deal, an onsite meeting is a great way to do that.
0
SPEAKER_00
It also adds a ton of value for your potential customer.
0
SPEAKER_00
So usually what these longer form meetings look are food, a piece of paper for everybody, pens, pencils, and a lot of content.
0
SPEAKER_00
Typically, I try to organize my content into a few categories, answering three questions.
0
SPEAKER_00
The questions are, does this vendor, they re asking this to us, the questions are, does this vendor have the tools I need to be successful?
0
SPEAKER_00
Do they have
0
SPEAKER_00
the partnership that I want a long-term vendor to offer me?
0
SPEAKER_00
And do they have a plan to implement me to be successful?
0
SPEAKER_00
So those are the three kind of questions that I think prospects are thinking or should be thinking as they re looking at a new vendor and what I try to answer and organize the day around.
0
SPEAKER_04
Let s say you re talking with Jen.
0
SPEAKER_04
Jen is your prospect, right?
0
SPEAKER_04
And you ve had maybe one or two discovery meetings.
0
SPEAKER_04
You ve identified a problem that you can solve for Jen.
0
SPEAKER_04
Jen s talked about wanting to do a bigger evaluation, maybe look at a couple of different folks.
0
SPEAKER_04
You know that a six hour onsite will be impactful for their business and for the deal.
0
SPEAKER_04
How do you pitch or position that onsite to Jen?
0
SPEAKER_04
How do you explain it to her?
0
SPEAKER_00
As with everything we pitch or position as salespeople, it almost always comes down to what s been important to Jen, what s been most important to Jen, and how we can align our resources internally at our company to what Jen s needs are.
0
SPEAKER_00
Most of the time, the vast majority of the time, it s confirming, do we have a fit to solve the top priority problems that Jen has at her business?
0
SPEAKER_00
And so to answer that question, you usually need a committee of people, org,
0
SPEAKER_00
commitment to collaborate and look into potential solutions that our vendor can offer.
0
SPEAKER_00
So for Jen, if I m speaking with her and she s wanting probably help understanding how to evaluate something, what I would say is, Hey, listen, I would love to come to your office and bring my team.
0
SPEAKER_00
I ll bring some people from product, some people from customer support, and some of my technical resources will bring you lunch.
0
SPEAKER_00
We ll probably bring some snacks and breakfast, take you to an Astros game.
0
SPEAKER_00
after, assuming, I don t live in Houston, but apparently Jen does, I don t know.
0
SPEAKER_00
That came out of nowhere.
0
SPEAKER_00
We ll take you to an athletes game after, but we can accomplish a lot in a six hour time together in person, way more than we can in six hours worth of Zoom.
0
SPEAKER_00
Do you think your team would be open to something like that?
0
SPEAKER_01
Okay, so just to give us a little context on your sale, our listeners a context.
0
SPEAKER_01
So up until this point, you re typically working with one person, multiple people, like is that meeting on site the first time you re getting exposed?
0
SPEAKER_01
Talk us through that a little bit, just to be of context there.
0
SPEAKER_00
So sometimes if I m working with one person and I know
0
SPEAKER_00
that we need to get wider in the org and higher, and they know that they need to get wider in the org if they re going to initiate change, then an onsite is a great opportunity to get wider.
0
SPEAKER_00
Recently, one thing I did that was really valuable for my team, as well as the prospect, was prior to our onsite meeting, I sent out a survey to the potential end users of our system.
0
SPEAKER_00
10 questions.
0
SPEAKER_00
It took them probably 10 minutes to fill out yes or no questions.
0
SPEAKER_00
I made it as simple and easy as possible so that we could get as many responses as we could.
0
SPEAKER_00
Sent it in Google Forms, and it basically just asked a lot of questions about current state.
0
SPEAKER_00
I think doing that really encouraged people to show up to the meeting because they knew what we were going to address, they knew what we were going to talk about, and then I was able to bring them back information that was packaged up really nicely.
1
SPEAKER_00
for them too.
1
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes we re with one person in the beginning and then we use this meeting as a way to get wider in the account and a little higher.
1
SPEAKER_00
Other times we already have the benefit of being with the committee and we use this to get even wider beyond the committee and into getting some end-user grounds while moving.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I used to have meetings like this also when I sold ERP systems to law firms.
1
SPEAKER_02
We would do the full day on site.
1
SPEAKER_02
We d bring a couple of people from our team.
1
SPEAKER_02
And my biggest learning from those was the work that you do to set expectations and the work that you do before this meeting
1
SPEAKER_02
sets up success for when you get there.
1
SPEAKER_02
And so to your point, things like that survey set you up for a way more productive meeting.
1
SPEAKER_02
I want to ask about some of the other things you re doing pre-meeting once they ve agreed to it, but this is a nuanced question.
1
SPEAKER_02
That Google survey or form that you sent out, was this like multiple choice questions?
1
SPEAKER_02
Was it like free form text boxes?
1
SPEAKER_02
How did you, what were you putting in that survey?
1
SPEAKER_00
All multiple choice.
1
SPEAKER_00
The reason is, if I were a buyer, as an end user, as a salesperson at a software company, if I get one more survey that has a million long form answers that I have to spend all this time, I m probably not going to fill it out very thoughtfully.
1
SPEAKER_00
But if someone sends me a survey with a bunch of really quick answers,
1
SPEAKER_00
I could do that.
1
SPEAKER_00
It takes me five minutes.
1
SPEAKER_00
No problem.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I feel very strongly that everything we do as salespeople, we need to make things easier for our prospects and customers and take the burden off of them of evaluating and almost offer ourselves as a project manager of their evaluation.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I made it as easy as possible.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we got a high rate of people filling out now.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I think it was because it was all multiple choice and like true, false, yes, no.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think one or two questions had
1
SPEAKER_00
a couple words needed for an answer, but that was it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Maybe 10 questions total.
1
SPEAKER_01
I love this idea of being so mindful about the effort for a buyer to do anything, any job to be done in buying.
1
SPEAKER_01
So let s stay on that for a second.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you are in one of those scenarios where you ve only worked with one person in the business,
1
SPEAKER_01
ask that person going out and saying, I want everybody to spend six hours with this complete stranger is another high effort task.
1
SPEAKER_01
So what are some of the things that you d recommend to sellers to do to make that job of getting other people on board for spending that time together a little bit easier for your buyer or your champion?
1
SPEAKER_00
thing is having clarity of mind about what the value is for your buyer to do a meeting like this.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think starting there, starting from having a customer centric mindset about why it would benefit them to do it is really helpful.
1
SPEAKER_00
And actually being able to verbalize that, that goes into the prep as well.
1
SPEAKER_00
If you re able to verbalize really succinctly for your technical solutions engineer that s coming to the meeting, your manager, your CS person, that s going to
1
SPEAKER_00
be really valuable, that thesis statement about why the customer is doing this or the prospect or the buyer is doing this.
1
SPEAKER_01
Can you give an example of what that might sound like?
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay, Jen, it sounds to me like what s really important to you is that we get buy-in from the end users, that we make sure that this is going to work technically, and that everybody feels really excited about our roadmap and that our
1
SPEAKER_00
company s visions align with where we re going in the future.
1
SPEAKER_00
What I found from doing all these evaluations of our software in the past has been really valuable is for us to get in a room together so that we can not only dig in and actually uncover a lot of the nuances of what our service will provide to you, but also that we can meet each other and that your team can feel the energy of our team and get to understand what our customer service
1
SPEAKER_00
feels like and looks like, what our product teams care about, and make sure that we re aligned culturally.
1
SPEAKER_00
That tends to be really important for companies like yours.
1
SPEAKER_00
What s your take on something like that?
1
SPEAKER_00
I like ending exactly like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
I don t want to hard close anyone on an onsite, but I like ending it on a, what s your take?
1
SPEAKER_00
What s your opinion?
1
SPEAKER_00
Does that seem valuable to you?
1
SPEAKER_00
Because I think you learn a lot.
1
SPEAKER_00
And the best thing we can get in a deal is close one.
1
SPEAKER_00
The second best thing is clarity.
1
SPEAKER_00
And if we can find out really quickly,
1
SPEAKER_00
If the answer to an onsite is no, why is that?
1
SPEAKER_00
Because you might not have a deal there.
1
SPEAKER_00
Is this real?
1
SPEAKER_00
If it s not real, it s okay.
1
SPEAKER_00
But if it s not real.
1
SPEAKER_00
It d be great to know now versus later.
1
SPEAKER_02
Fast forward to the day of the meeting.
1
SPEAKER_02
Here we go.
1
SPEAKER_02
You ve gotten on your airplane.
1
SPEAKER_02
You flew to Houston to visit Jen.
1
SPEAKER_02
Not my territory, by the way.
1
SPEAKER_02
Not where I live.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re going to pretend Jen has moved to Houston and there s a great Astros game that night.
1
SPEAKER_02
You land in Houston.
1
SPEAKER_02
You ve got a meeting.
1
SPEAKER_02
Talk to me about hour by hour, how that day goes, and then we ll zoom in on specific pieces.
1
SPEAKER_00
Fun.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_00
On-site day.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the day before the on-site,
1
SPEAKER_00
I have everything printed out and ready.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I have papers printed out that I m going to hand out to everybody there.
1
SPEAKER_00
I always have extras.
1
SPEAKER_00
If there s 15 people that are coming to this meeting, then I print out 25 pieces of paper.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s almost always one piece of paper.
1
SPEAKER_00
I don t want it to be distracting.
1
SPEAKER_00
And again, the purpose of the paper is to keep us focused and give someone a note-taking device.
1
SPEAKER_00
So it s usually a product list or something like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
The day before the meeting, I also have everybody who s coming to the meeting from my team has a prep document that has names, titles, LinkedIn links for every single person coming to this meeting.
1
SPEAKER_00
They have my notes about what the customer cares about, why we re doing this meeting.
1
SPEAKER_00
They have notes about other software that s in place that might play nicely with our software.
1
SPEAKER_00
All of that stuff is all prepped.
1
SPEAKER_00
Everybody s seen it the day before.
1
SPEAKER_00
Everybody knows about it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Usually the customer s seen exactly what my internal team has seen.
1
SPEAKER_00
The day before the meeting, I ve also put on my own calendar the specific time blocks of drive from hotel to the bagel shop down the street, pick up X amount of bagels.
1
SPEAKER_00
If you re late to an onsite, it s
1
SPEAKER_00
the worst thing in the whole entire world.
1
SPEAKER_00
So morning of, I wake up super early, have some coffee.
1
SPEAKER_00
And this I think is the most important thing you can do.
1
SPEAKER_00
I put on Beyonce and I make sure that the vibes are so good and so fun in my own hotel room and in my rental car.
1
SPEAKER_00
And my technical person who gets in the car with me is gonna leave it on Beyonce, but I m loving it.
1
SPEAKER_00
So we get the Beyonce vibes going.
1
SPEAKER_00
Really important, genuinely.
1
SPEAKER_00
No sad music before an onsite, absolutely not.
1
SPEAKER_00
We go get the bagels, we go get the food, we have everything ready.
1
SPEAKER_00
By the way, I also feel very strongly about this.
1
SPEAKER_00
I always wear like a buttoned up shirt and professional pants.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then I try to get really fun shoes, like a really bright pink with a big bow.
1
SPEAKER_00
because I sell the construction.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I want to, I don t know, bring in a fun big boat or something.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it s always a talking point.
1
SPEAKER_00
Everybody wants to talk about it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Sometimes I m the only woman in the room and we re talking about my shoes.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I think that s just like perfect.
1
SPEAKER_00
So then you get there early, start setting up, make sure all your tech is set up.
1
SPEAKER_00
You have your bagels over on the side, hopefully from a local bagel shop.
1
SPEAKER_00
bagels, donuts, something salty is good because it gets people moving.
1
SPEAKER_00
And then when you start the meeting, people are going to start trickling in.
1
SPEAKER_00
You walk up to every single person, shake their hand, repeat their name back to them so that it helps you remember every single person, shake their hand, repeat their name back to them and make sure you clock who s who.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think it s really important to clock who s who in the room because what you re going to find during the meeting is titles don t mean that much in terms of influence.
1
SPEAKER_00
People with varying ranges of titles
1
SPEAKER_00
are very influential in these deals.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I want to know everyone s name, make a connection with them, and make sure they feel important.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re going to keep going here, but just to recap what I m hearing thus far.
1
SPEAKER_02
We re getting in the day before, generally.
1
SPEAKER_02
You re getting everything printed the day before, so there s no running around last minute.
1
SPEAKER_02
You have a very specific outfit that you re wearing with an element that stands out so that people remember you and you have a talking point.
1
SPEAKER_02
And you are going to get bagels from a local bagel shop as opposed to a Panera Bread, it sounds.
1
SPEAKER_02
One of the things that I really liked that you did, that I ve made this mistake before, is it sounds like you ve got an agenda for this meeting for probably, okay, from eight to 10, or I don t know, from nine to 11, there s gonna be conversation and breakfast.
1
SPEAKER_02
From 11 to 12, there s gonna be a demo of a certain module.
1
SPEAKER_02
12 to one, lunch.
1
SPEAKER_02
One to two, demo of a different module.
1
SPEAKER_02
Two to three, customer success conversation, et cetera.
1
SPEAKER_02
You have different sessions, and my guess is the room sometimes changes in terms of who comes in for different pieces.
1
SPEAKER_02
I ve made the mistake before of my meeting getting thrown off because I just had a full eight-hour block on my calendar, as opposed to those individual blocks.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I have made the mistake of not plotting drive time on my calendar.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I ll never forget, I flew to Austin, Texas.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I had a meeting that my director and I, we were hanging out in a poke shop, just like chilling, catching up.
1
SPEAKER_02
And we showed up at the meeting right when it was supposed to start, as opposed to early for technical setup.
1
SPEAKER_02
So you are 100% right, that has to be done.
1
SPEAKER_02
So we re in the car, your technical person enters, you re blasting Texas Hold em, you arrive at their office, you walk in, you ve shaken
2
SPEAKER_02
You ve repeated Jen s name after she greeted you.
2
SPEAKER_02
You ve clocked two matters.
2
SPEAKER_02
Talk to me about what happens the rest of the day.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is the fun part.
2
SPEAKER_00
Everybody sits down and they look to you because you re leading the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this is your opportunity to set the agenda, let everyone know what the expectations are for the meeting, and then start introductions.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think introductions are the best part of this meeting because what you can do is use this moment to make sure you re super clear on who s in the room and what they care about most.
2
SPEAKER_00
Every single onsite I have, even if it s the fourth or fifth onsite with the same company, I say, okay, everyone, let s go around the room.
2
SPEAKER_00
Everybody tell me, what s your name?
2
SPEAKER_00
What do you do for XYZ company?
2
SPEAKER_00
And what s most important to you to get out of this meeting today?
2
SPEAKER_00
Everybody goes through and says one or two things.
2
SPEAKER_00
And sometimes if people pause, I say, it could be anything.
2
SPEAKER_00
It could be about something technical, it could be about a competitor, it could be about my pink flowery shoes, it could be about anything.
2
SPEAKER_00
And give people an opportunity to laugh a little bit.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s lighthearted, we re gonna have a fun on site.
2
SPEAKER_00
But what I do then,
2
SPEAKER_00
on my piece of paper, because I don t have my laptop open during these onsites ever.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t want people to be distracted themselves.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I don t want to be distracted either.
2
SPEAKER_00
I want to be really present.
2
SPEAKER_00
And if I have my laptop open, I will be on Slack or on Nordstrom s website.
2
SPEAKER_00
So my laptop shut, I have my notebook open.
2
SPEAKER_00
And every person who introduces himself, I write down their name, write down what they do, and I write down what they care about the most.
2
SPEAKER_00
That way, as we re going through these intros, sometimes it s 30 people and it s worth the 30 minutes to do this.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re going through these intros and you re seeing the themes and you re seeing the things that people care about.
2
SPEAKER_00
And sometimes you re looking at it and you re going, wow, last time I was here, this is not what people were talking about.
2
SPEAKER_00
And now here s what we re talking about.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s three pages back in my notebook.
2
SPEAKER_00
But regardless, you re giving everybody a moment where they are, they re free to open up and say something.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that then opens the floodgates for the rest of the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
What you don t want to do is start off as the Michelle show or as the vendor show where this meeting is all about us.
2
SPEAKER_00
We want this meeting to be all about our prospect, all about our customer.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so by allowing everybody to speak and actually asking everybody to speak, oftentimes I ll say, okay, Nick, let s hear from you.
2
SPEAKER_00
Jen, let s hear from you.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I ll invite people to say something that just opens the door.
2
SPEAKER_00
So the rest of the meeting, they re able to be vocal.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I think that s one of the most simple, basic and critical.
2
SPEAKER_00
parts of doing these meetings in person.
2
SPEAKER_01
So then when it comes to the agenda, are you waiting until after introductions and then listening to what comes up in the introductions to then say, okay, based on this, here s my agenda or how do you do it?
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t want to feed an answer, but usually what ll happen is the agenda will be set.
2
SPEAKER_00
So product agenda, we re going to go through these few products, whatever it might be.
2
SPEAKER_00
And almost always people s things that they want to talk about.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have some sense of before I know before from some pre-discovery work,
2
SPEAKER_00
What that does for me is allows me then to, let s say, Jen, you said, Michelle, I really want to understand how your change order tool works.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I say, okay, great, Jen.
2
SPEAKER_00
Now that I have that written down, once we get to that part of the process, I m going to say, Jen, you said it was your one of your top priorities to understand how our change order tool works.
2
SPEAKER_00
Before we get into this tool, can you give me a refresh on how are you managing change now?
2
SPEAKER_00
What s your change order process look like today?
2
SPEAKER_00
And what s wrong with it?
2
SPEAKER_00
Why isn t that working?
2
SPEAKER_00
And then we can get into our tool.
2
SPEAKER_00
So it gives me an opportunity to sprinkle in intentional discovery during the actual meeting because of that pre-work and the intros.
2
SPEAKER_01
I cannot let you ask a question, Nick, before saying how much I love that.
2
SPEAKER_01
You think about a six hour meeting, right?
2
SPEAKER_01
I m sure we ve all sat in boring six hour meetings where you just slowly fade into like,
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t care anymore. 
2
SPEAKER_01
What a great way to keep your audience engaged and to just absolutely demonstrate that you are active listening, not going through the motions, but actually asking for a purpose.
2
SPEAKER_01
I could not love that tip more.
2
SPEAKER_01
Sorry, I just had to gush over that.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m learning a lot here.
2
SPEAKER_02
And this is taking me back to when I would sell the ARP stuff.
2
SPEAKER_02
And so I m just like,
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh man, I wish I had this episode years and years ago.
2
SPEAKER_02
You mentioned that you re bringing a couple different people from your team to this meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
You mentioned customer success person might be there.
2
SPEAKER_02
You re probably bringing a solutions engineer, maybe two, depending upon the complexity of what you re demonstrating.
2
SPEAKER_02
What are those people doing when you re presenting?
2
SPEAKER_02
And what are you doing when they are presenting?
2
SPEAKER_02
Other than humming crazy in love.
2
SPEAKER_00
One of the solutions engineers that I work with all the time, he and I talk about this a lot because we talk a lot while each other is presenting.
2
SPEAKER_00
We interject, we ask questions.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the reason that we re able to do that is we ve done a lot of meetings together.
2
SPEAKER_00
We ve got it under our belt.
2
SPEAKER_00
We know how to do that.
2
SPEAKER_00
But we also are able to get on the same page before the meeting in a really great way.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think part of being an AE is being the quarterback, being in the driver s seat, calling your shots, and then sticking to it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so with one of my SEEs, prior to every meeting, I always tell him,
2
SPEAKER_00
This is what I think we should do in terms of our energy and our vibe in the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
And specifically what I mean is saying, hey, this is a serious group.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s be serious.
2
SPEAKER_00
Or, hey, this group is going to interrupt a ton.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re going to joke around a ton.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s going to be a party.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s go with it.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s meet them where they re at.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so a lot of it is setting the stage ahead of time with SE.
2
SPEAKER_00
But my SE, when he s talking product, I ll interrupt him and say, hey, one second, Grady.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think Jen had a question that we went over in the intros about change orders.
2
SPEAKER_00
Can we hear what she had to say about that before we actually dive in?
2
SPEAKER_00
I ve been in sessions with other salespeople where it s a little more strict about who talks when, and there s all sorts of different ways that success looks, I think, but I want my onsites to be highly collaborative with the customer.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I think that means I need to model that by being highly collaborative with my team on my side as well.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just from talking to you, it s very clear you run an amazing on-site meeting.
2
SPEAKER_01
But if you think back to early Michelle days when you were first doing it, I ve certainly led meetings where you have that realization.
2
SPEAKER_01
You re like, I m losing the room.
2
SPEAKER_01
Has that ever happened to you?
2
SPEAKER_01
And if so, what do you do to pivot in those moments?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, it s definitely happened.
2
SPEAKER_01
Okay, good.
2
SPEAKER_01
You re human.
2
SPEAKER_00
For sure.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for sure.
2
SPEAKER_00
Had this one meeting that totally went off the rails and I lost everybody.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was just because we didn t do great discovery.
2
SPEAKER_00
We just didn t.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s not that we didn t do great discovery.
2
SPEAKER_00
We didn t even do good enough discovery.
2
SPEAKER_00
We really didn t know what people cared about that were in the room.
2
SPEAKER_00
So we were talking about stuff that they didn t really care about.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it wasn t like the top priority thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I remember I just stopped it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I said, call me crazy, tell me if I m wrong, but are we just blowing it right now?
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, are we just bombing?
2
SPEAKER_00
And everybody laughed and it lightened everything up.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was like...
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, we just don t, that s just not, that doesn t, that s not a fit for us.
2
SPEAKER_00
That piece of the product is not a fit for us.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was really great because my SC and I were able to say, okay, scrap it.
2
SPEAKER_00
This is your time.
2
SPEAKER_00
We lose people when we focus on our company, our solution, but we keep people when we re focused on their business, their priorities, their problems, their stuff, because that s what we re talking about is enabling their businesses.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re not talking about
2
SPEAKER_00
buying our software.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re talking about what their business needs and how we can support that.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I think that s when we lose people is when we start presenting and we stop collaborating.
2
SPEAKER_02
Man, there s so much more that I want to ask you about what goes in this meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
We re definitely going to have to get you back on the show, Michelle.
2
SPEAKER_02
We re running out of time.
2
SPEAKER_02
I want to ask you about after the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
I presume that when you walk out of that boardroom and you get into the fresh air of the street, the lovely air of Houston in the middle of July, there s some intention in terms of what happens after the meeting.
2
SPEAKER_02
So talk to me about the debrief with your team and then the follow-up with the customer.
2
SPEAKER_00
I am a big believer, if any of my teammates, which I m sure many of them will see some of this, see this, they ll laugh at this part.
2
SPEAKER_00
I am a huge believer in celebration and recognition.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so the very first thing I ever do is high five my SE, my CS partner, and just talk to them about what they brought that was so valuable to that meeting.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I think that s the most important thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
These are jobs.
2
SPEAKER_00
These are just jobs and we re doing our best and everybody I work with does their best.
2
SPEAKER_00
And at the end of the day, we re spending time away from our families to go travel, to go do this job.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I want people to feel if they re traveling with me, I want people to feel super appreciated, super valued.
2
SPEAKER_00
And like, I m so glad that they re there because I am, because it s a gift to me that these people are working with me.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m doing so first and foremost, high fives, celebrations for job well done and for good work.
2
SPEAKER_00
Then from there, it s okay, what does everyone else think are the best next steps?
2
SPEAKER_00
From my solutions engineer to my CS partner to me, let s sit down and talk about this.
2
SPEAKER_00
What do we need to do?
2
SPEAKER_00
What does the customer need for us?
2
SPEAKER_00
Usually it s pretty clear.
3
SPEAKER_01
We collaborate on it.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s usually not that hard.
3
SPEAKER_01
We almost always leave that meeting with a scheduled next step, but this is what we need to validate next.
3
SPEAKER_01
And these are the ways that we re going to really determine if our solutions right for you.
3
SPEAKER_01
So, usually that part s not.
3
SPEAKER_01
that hard.
3
SPEAKER_01
Finally after that I always the next day send a follow-up email that has those notes in it about here s what we talked about and I keep it simple.
3
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t need to be some long crazy people aren t going to be impressed by a long email they re just going to not read it so it doesn t have to be long but I send bullet points here s what we covered here s what we talked about here s our outstanding items here s the next steps and try to make it really organized so I can project manage it
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I call as many people as I can and thank them for their time and ask them what they thought.
3
SPEAKER_01
And that is the most valuable thing I think we can do after that meeting, is call everybody, every single person, no matter who they are.
3
SPEAKER_01
If they don t answer, it s fine.
3
SPEAKER_01
Leave a voicemail, tell them, I just want to say thank you for your time yesterday.
3
SPEAKER_01
Would love to get your feedback at some point.
3
SPEAKER_01
But you just get gold after that.
3
SPEAKER_01
People know you, they trust you.
3
SPEAKER_01
They re a little more comfortable with you.
3
SPEAKER_01
They ve met you in person.
3
SPEAKER_01
They ve shaken your hand.
3
SPEAKER_01
not laughed at your stupid joke.
3
SPEAKER_01
So they re open to giving you the real feedback, which is really great.
3
SPEAKER_02
That is one of the most fire multi-threading tips I ve ever heard.
3
SPEAKER_02
You met all of these people, you call them, you thank them, you ask for feedback.
3
SPEAKER_02
And 17 minutes later, you ve got a next step with this person and this person, and you ve talked to this person and you ve figured out what that person cares about.
3
SPEAKER_02
That
3
SPEAKER_02
is really good.
3
SPEAKER_02
Michelle, we re going to end on a high note.
3
SPEAKER_02
I got to move to our final question now.
3
SPEAKER_02
So we ve talked about a lot of really great things salespeople should be doing.
3
SPEAKER_02
My last question flips that one on its head, and it s going to ask you about a shouldn t.
3
SPEAKER_02
And so my final question is, what is one bad habit that you see a lot of salespeople exhibiting that you think they need to break because it hurts them more than it helps?
3
SPEAKER_01
Dishonesty about the reality of your deal.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think the best thing
3
SPEAKER_01
a salesperson can do is hold your deal with open hands.
3
SPEAKER_01
If it doesn t close, you re probably not going to die.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I think the worst thing I see salespeople do is get defensive about deals and they don t actually look at their deal really honestly and don t actually look at their deal and ask themselves, why won t this close?
3
SPEAKER_01
And what could get in the way of this one?
3
SPEAKER_01
The worst thing a salesperson can do is
3
SPEAKER_01
convince themselves that something s going to close, it s not going to close.
3
SPEAKER_01
It just creates more heartache for us and salespeople have so much heartache.
3
SPEAKER_02
A lot of heartache, but that s what we have Beyonce for to get over it and power through.
3
SPEAKER_02
Michelle, thank you for joining us.
3
SPEAKER_02
Everybody stick around for a 60 second recap coming up soon.
3
SPEAKER_03
This actionable competitive tactic from Clue is the trap question.
3
SPEAKER_03
Steer discovery toward the winning zone.
3
SPEAKER_03
If we re competing with a podcast that has no newsletter or webinar series,
3
SPEAKER_03
we might ask a trap question like, how do you figure out if those podcast listeners are making their way to your mailing list?
3
SPEAKER_03
And when you re in a head-to-head, there s no better way to prepare for your next competitive battle than with our trap questions and battle card templates from our friends at Clue.
3
SPEAKER_03
The link s in the show notes.
3
SPEAKER_02
Today s deal acceleration cheat code is brought to you by Pipedrive, which is a CRM built by sellers for sellers.
3
SPEAKER_02
The best way to drive your pipeline forward is to, every single day, pull up a list of all of your open opportunities and look at each opportunity by stage and think, what can I do today that will increase my likelihood of winning this deal?
3
SPEAKER_02
That s how you keep your ops moving forward in between meetings that you have on the calendar.
3
SPEAKER_02
Now, we documented five cheat codes that can help you cut your sales cycle in half with Pipedrive,
3
SPEAKER_02
There s a link in the show notes to steal them.
3
SPEAKER_03
Your ZoomInfo actionable insight tactic is called Jane s Moving Up.
3
SPEAKER_03
Why?
3
SPEAKER_03
Because that s the email subject line you ll use when you get a real-time notice that your prospect, Jane, just got promoted.
3
SPEAKER_03
From there, in the email, explain how ZoomInfo helps rising sales leaders win their first 90 days on the job by highlighting coaching opportunities or supporting a team-wide prospecting push.
3
SPEAKER_03
And you can try out this trigger-based email template for prospect promotion
3
SPEAKER_03
and four other scenarios inspired by ZoomInfo s go-to-market plays, link in the show notes.
3
SPEAKER_03
Today s tactic to triple your connect rate is brought to you by Rocket Reach, who provides data that lets you reach out to the right person at the right account at the right time.
3
SPEAKER_03
Every time you re reaching out to an account, pull down the contacts.
3
SPEAKER_03
Again, yes, I know it sucks, but the average tech tenure is two years, which means 50% of the workforce turns over every year.
3
SPEAKER_03
So look up the account, pull anyone who was hired, and scratch anyone who was left.
3
SPEAKER_03
And one way you can pull verified and accurate data is with Rocket Reach.
3
SPEAKER_03
So if you like this, check out their toolkit on eight ways to triple your cold call connects in the show notes.
3
SPEAKER_02
Your top four actionable takeaways from this episode with Michelle.
3
SPEAKER_02
Number one, do not underestimate the impact of recognition of your SE.
3
SPEAKER_02
She gives a high five to all of her subject matter experts who come to these onsites and take time away from their family to present to her deal.
3
SPEAKER_02
I have seen the power of this.
3
SPEAKER_02
When you make your SEs feel special, they will go above and beyond for your deals.
3
SPEAKER_02
This has a bigger impact than pretty much any other sales tactic out there.
3
SPEAKER_02
Do this, and I promise you will make more money.
3
SPEAKER_02
Number two, the number one multi-threading approach post-meeting.
3
SPEAKER_02
Shocker.
3
SPEAKER_02
Pick up the phone and call as many people as you can who you met at that meeting.
3
SPEAKER_02
First, thank them for their time.
3
SPEAKER_02
And then two, ask them for some feedback.
3
SPEAKER_02
This will lead to great discovery and next steps, and it will help you develop relationships all across the account.
3
SPEAKER_00
Number three, when you make the suggestion to your champion to bring folks together for an on-site meeting, be very prescriptive around what s in it for them, but use Michelle s tip to close with, it surfaces skepticism, any concerns, so that you re not forcing a next step down their throat.
3
SPEAKER_00
And number four,
3
SPEAKER_00
Use a pre-meeting survey to ask questions about the client s current state to all meeting participants.
3
SPEAKER_00
One of her best tips here was to make it very easy to respond.
3
SPEAKER_00
Use multiple choice questions, yes or no questions, true and false questions, rather than high effort, open text fields.
3
SPEAKER_00
Nick, what can listeners do to help out 30 Minutes to Presence Club today?
3
SPEAKER_02
Folks, sadly, we didn t have any cowboy hats or pink boots on this episode.
3
SPEAKER_02
But if you want to see our smiling faces and watch 30 MPC in full technicolor, we ve actually started putting these episodes on YouTube.
3
SPEAKER_02
Armand thinks that he s a movie star because he doesn t know the difference between YouTube and the movies.
3
SPEAKER_02
Jen and I are a little more reasonable and we just think it might be a fun way for you to watch the show.
3
SPEAKER_02
Give 30 NBC a watch on YouTube and we ll see you next week on the show.
3
SPEAKER_02
Today s prospecting tip is brought to you by Supercadence by Influ2, which helps cut through the noise of oversaturated prospecting channels.
3
SPEAKER_02
If you want to get your prospect s attention, you ve got to do stuff a robot would never do.
3
SPEAKER_02
One of my favorite plays is getting warm introductions to the accounts that I m targeting via salespeople who work at that account.
3
SPEAKER_02
Salespeople help salespeople.
3
SPEAKER_02
Another approach could be using Supercadence to run SDR ads to put a face to the name.
3
SPEAKER_02
Now, we worked with Influ2 to put together a special toolkit on ways to humanize your outreach, which you can get for free at the link in the show notes.
3
SPEAKER_03
This week s actionable prospecting tactic is from Sixth Sense, who shows you the prospects who are most likely to buy so you can get more meetings with fewer activities.
3
SPEAKER_03
Personalizing cold emails requires you to only change the first paragraph in a trigger template.
3
SPEAKER_03
All you have to do is tie the research to the problem you solve in paragraph one, and then switch that out while you leave paragraphs two and three, your solution and call to action, exactly the same.
3
SPEAKER_03
And so we are giving you six of these trigger templates with our partners at Sixth Sense.
3
SPEAKER_03
The link is in the show notes.