Founders/AEs, Struggling to sell a disruptive AI solution? Here are 3-5 questions that helped me overcome buyer skepticism & security concerns selling Gen AI in the last 9 months (Challenger Sales # 1 - To Be Continued..) 1. Uncover Current Way of doing things Taking Docket (AI Sales Engineer) as an example - Curious - What's the current process your sales team uses when they have product-related queries? How do they find the information they need? Pro Tip --> Summarize what you see with your current customers or have felt in the past that might be the exact reality (check comments to see what I say) 2. Highlight inefficiencies in an authentic way Revenue leaders with similar contexts tell us that AEs waste 30% of their time searching complex product info. Maybe curated or uncurated sources like slack or historically recorded sales calls or trainings. Curious - What do you feel? What would happen to sales cycles or revenues if accurate product information was always available instantly? Pro Tip --> Name some of your current customers where you have seen this & use exact metrics (Eg. drop in cycle length, higher conversion rates & less ramp time for AEs in my case) 3. Implicate Pain by exposing Risks & Missed Opportunities Seems it's fair to assume that if your AEs can’t get timely information, deals may get delayed or lost? Have you seen this on any recent deals? Pro Tip --> When the pain is felt & imagined & not just rationalized, know you are getting through to the emotional brain. All humans make emotional decisions & justify them rationally (remember that!) If you noticed, I am just using Step 1 of Challenger sales here (Teach For Differentiation!) Yes - I love this approach & am biased! Why not? With category-defining innovative products, it has worked for me in the past Curious - What tactics/techniques are working for you? P.S. If you have not read Challenger Sales by Matthew Dixon, please do!
Link to the book that has helped me & my teams win millions of $s in new ARR - https://www.amazon.com/Challenger-Sale-Control-Customer-Conversation/dp/1591844355
Any fans of Challenger sales? What could I do differently here? :)
Can you share how do you ensure your AI sales strategy aligns with the unique needs and pain points of each prospective client, Aman S.?
5x Sales Leader | SaaS + FinTech + AI | IIM MBA | IIT Engineer | Startups + Tech Giants | Consulting --> Product Manager --> Tech Sales | Curious + Consistent
7moFor eg. Assume they mention current way of looking for info is Highspot/Seismic, I say I was a power user of these platforms. They are good but saw my AEs always asked SEs/SCs/other AEs or sales leaders on Slack before searching on tools. They felt enablement platforms were always outdated. Wondering if this is true in your case?