Return-Path: Delivered-To: andrew@sterlingcal.com Received: from reseller401.webserversystems.com by reseller401.webserversystems.com with LMTP id uA2MNdxoGWaH2goAchKAPA (envelope-from ) for ; Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:01:16 -0500 Return-path: Envelope-to: andrew@sterlingcal.com Delivery-date: Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:01:16 -0500 Received: from o9.ptr9577.mail.beehiiv.com ([149.72.190.201]:38886) by reseller401.webserversystems.com with esmtps (TLS1.2) tls TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (Exim 4.96.2) (envelope-from ) id 1rvKH5-002zuW-2y for andrew@sterlingcal.com; Fri, 12 Apr 2024 12:01:16 -0500 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mail.beehiiv.com; h=content-type:from:mime-version:subject:reply-to:list-unsubscribe:to: cc:content-type:from:subject:to; s=s1; bh=FXEWr0LTV6geJbD9khC1rHBtLl20YfVAUVQQ9r9gZLk=; b=eIFV6YU+Lywnq2DLfQ0lx5aKaEW0ersV/1Dyzh+A1fv8L37JydXj5O6jgZBtAEf1NQg9 GRWkz3JEB5WStf3ec2QjEfp8DYDqxPsw+YoMPIPI0feyxPf72xOX1vfQHDfuQCkkWiWFCZ 3hEfhe0brmINdVD0Yay6d7JccPzvAp7YrNUcBcVWWqINvSGnWE+VOEBdD7pqfJ7xwCAflu E6N6s5eyfVejIWGjEparLIjjr+pLSiP1XfAioKeRmlscqvlRrhgAyFsBzuXI5qqAIp93ie E+Y9JTJlPR2uoF/hxKFN2FPmsTuPgjh8ZhKunYJ5nUDr3+p5VV1h8uhtrTC8ZeCQ== Received: by filterdrecv-7c99bfbdbc-bflzg with SMTP id filterdrecv-7c99bfbdbc-bflzg-1-661968CB-105 2024-04-12 17:00:59.886275054 +0000 UTC m=+2146600.896307682 Received: from NDAyMzQxODk (unknown) by geopod-ismtpd-31 (SG) with HTTP id CMlKwyw3ShaEk6iTP1kdVQ Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:00:59.487 +0000 (UTC) Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=043e8f657b059974d614072f544b821c64b2901b038b4ec19e084be82d41 Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:01:03 +0000 (UTC) From: Collin Stewart Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: Subject: customer development and sales Reply-To: Collin Stewart List-Unsubscribe: =?us-ascii?Q?=3Cmailto=3A3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d+1d17dc26-c1df-44e?= =?us-ascii?Q?0-812a-883b6ad5b6bc+c9e03875-d28b-4f4c-?= =?us-ascii?Q?8cd9-56a8b296da17=40unsub=2Ebeehiiv=2Ecom=3E=2C?= =?us-ascii?Q?_=3Chttps=3A=2F=2Fpredictablerevenue-newsletter=2Ebeehiiv=2Ecom=2Fsubscribe=2F1?= =?us-ascii?Q?d17dc26-c1df-44e0-812a-883b6ad5b6bc=2Fman?= =?us-ascii?Q?age=3Fpost=5Fid=3Dc9e03875-d28b-4f4c-8cd9-56a?= =?us-ascii?Q?8b296da17=3E?= sId: 3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d x-list-owner: x-newsletter-signup: https://predictablerevenue-newsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe x-beehiiv-ids: =?us-ascii?Q?{=22account=5Fname=22=3A=22https=3A=2F=2Fpredictablerevenue-newsletter=2Ebeehiiv?= =?us-ascii?Q?=2Ecom=2F=22=2C=22campaign=5Fid=22=3A=22c9e03875-d28b-4f4?= =?us-ascii?Q?c-8cd9-56a8b296da17=22=2C=22category=22=3A=22newsle?= =?us-ascii?Q?tter=22=2C=22email=5Fgenerated=5Fat=22=3A1712941259=2C=22?= =?us-ascii?Q?user=5Fid=22=3A=223c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137b?= =?us-ascii?Q?ca24b1d=22}?= x-list-id: 3c5b97ff-00a9-4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d Feedback-ID: =?us-ascii?Q?c9e03875-d28b-4f4c-8cd9-56a8b296da17=3Anewsletter=3A3c5b97ff-00a9-?= =?us-ascii?Q?4acc-916d-c137bca24b1d=3A23270855726497d?= x-newsletter-id: https://predictablerevenue-newsletter.beehiiv.com/ x-beehiiv-type: newsletter x-newsletter: =?us-ascii?Q?https=3A=2F=2Fpredictablerevenue-newsletter=2Ebeehiiv=2Ecom=2Fp=2Fcustomer-d?= =?us-ascii?Q?evelopment-sales?= X-SG-EID: =?us-ascii?Q?u001=2E7ozyt+tmjDsHnEocxX8pymFA2v5OOh2V4Pdr6hGVjZo99sLHT4OeEg7as?= =?us-ascii?Q?oEFtQzIa0qAOkk1QezFA4qrCcff9558yNK8x6zQ?= =?us-ascii?Q?0aLhxDCyAuB9kgcSLas3IIKR+fvCUJBB9daQ1qF?= =?us-ascii?Q?FbckM=2FS=2FMTeY4uAPOYvuBvfYe0Oi=2F2htvL5R=2FHc?= =?us-ascii?Q?e2C3gqKGit3QiX=2FbquHYO+kQJtbQ88FWglLNndB?= =?us-ascii?Q?vlfbTdzU91GaaCUQXTrWOTtLl89hbLvxWFsTG8h?= =?us-ascii?Q?poistRJUhgkXrjL+t3Dpemky+mEeXN0FLkg9kOY?= =?us-ascii?Q?+hdz30LI=3D?= X-SG-ID: =?us-ascii?Q?u001=2ESdBcvi+Evd=2FbQef8eZF3BpTL9BgbK5wfSJMJGMsmprAVgeiC8iaV7rEmQ?= =?us-ascii?Q?+cYi2k7fwo1TRAyNqgwUTIhxTUUMZcUsrrrjyEW?= =?us-ascii?Q?4APcNhNPiMt92AcMvZMkYkd0E+Z6zAnGQKc4971?= =?us-ascii?Q?yyrPbSRYfNcY01G+P0MPIbxCOepOPIwdksXYw3k?= =?us-ascii?Q?eAUldopwXvDDAUeFn35lHvNLxltCf7sP685vVmm?= =?us-ascii?Q?UJeXIiYaPxzLCxLBn7BuiJmWYeaZ1StBi7QkuOt?= =?us-ascii?Q?hrat3b8T3lL=2F=2FsvAupTaxEjIsg=3D=3D?= To: "andrew@sterlingcal.com" X-Entity-ID: u001.RuZ2+X9IBGtjUb8qq3teHQ== X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 X-Spam-Score: -5 X-Spam-Bar: / X-Spam-Flag: NO --043e8f657b059974d614072f544b821c64b2901b038b4ec19e084be82d41 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 Good morning Andrew,=20 Someone from the community (_thanks Kincy_) was kind enough to invite me to= be on their podcast this week and asked a great question, =E2=80=9Cwhat do= es a dirty rotten salesperson know about customer development?=E2=80=9D. H= e was much nicer about it, I=E2=80=99m paraphrasing, but I thought it was a= great question that warranted a more thoughtful reply.=20 When I first started doing =E2=80=98customer development=E2=80=99 interview= s, I took the phrase a little too literally. I had spent 10 years working w= ith CRMs and considered myself an expert, I wasn=E2=80=99t but I didn=E2=80= =99t realize it yet. This was a Dunning-Kruger moment for me. I had read bo= oks from Steve Blank, Eric Ries, & Ash Maurya but completely missed the par= t about customer development being about the customer. Instead, I weaponize= d their ideas to rationalize my approach, showing potential customers what = I was working on and asking for feedback instead of asking questions to fin= d their unmet needs.=20 The mistake I made was making the interviews about me (_hit me back with an= _=F0=9F=99=8B_ __emoji if you=E2=80=99ve done the same_). These were my id= eas, I thought I was the Steve Jobs of sales, and future customers should b= ow down to my brilliance. I=E2=80=99m not and they didn=E2=80=99t. Interest= ingly, I had a valuable and correct insight about the CRM market in 2012, t= hat SaaS CRM was no longer a personal productivity tool for salespeople. In= spite of this, I managed to work myself into a superposition of being both= wrong and right.=20 On reflecting, it=E2=80=99s embarrassing because I was a _good_ sales rep a= t that point and a good rep should know to start a conversation with strong= discovery. Discovery, in sales, is the process of understanding the enviro= nment the prospect is operating in, the progress they are looking to make, = and the impact the progress will have on their organization. The golden rul= e is to share as little with the prospect until you=E2=80=99ve completed mo= st of your Discovery. This isn=E2=80=99t some dirty sales jedi trick (_most= of those don=E2=80=99t work anyway_). It=E2=80=99s to prevent reps from du= mping unnecessary context on a prospect and wasting everyone=E2=80=99s time= . Think of a sales rep like a DJ, they could play from a near unlimited sel= ection of songs but a _good DJ_ will know how to find that perfect song to = get everyone dancing. Good Discovery is about understanding which songs you= r prospect wants to hear.=20 Discovery conversations usually follows a flow of Context, Progress, Impact= . Once you understand all three, you summarize what you=E2=80=99ve heard an= d ask the prospect if you missed anything. When you understand them and the= y=E2=80=99ve confirmed you haven=E2=80=99t missed anything, you=E2=80=99ve = reached the point of mutual understanding. Now you=E2=80=99ve earned the ri= ght to make a recommendation. If the prospect likes your recommendation, th= ey=E2=80=99ll run Discovery on you to understand the Context, Progress, and= Impact of your solution.=20 _Hit me back with =E2=80=9Cgraphics!=E2=80=9D if some truly terrible illust= rations of my Discovery / Sales process would help you understand it better= . They=E2=80=99re helpful but super ugly. _ I knew all of this going into my interviews but I missed it because I was t= oo excited about my own ideas. The moment that woke me up was when a mentor= told me, =E2=80=9CI can=E2=80=99t wait until you=E2=80=99re working on som= ething that has a chance of being successful.=E2=80=9D It sounds mean but i= t was the exact wake up call that I needed to realize that the customer dev= elopment process wasn=E2=80=99t about validating my own ideas, it was about= finding unmet needs. It helped me realize that good Customer Development w= as just the Discovery phase of the sales process. This insight changed the = game for me.=20 I moved from a process that started with showing people what I was working = on to one where I told them very little until I had reached the point of mu= tual understanding. One difference from the sales process, instead of makin= g recommendations, I switched to asking my magic wand question & calibratio= n questions.=20 Back to Kincy=E2=80=99s question, what does a dirty salesperson know about = Customer Development? Quite a bit actually. Because, Discovery is Discovery= . Once you=E2=80=99ve learned how to ask good questions, follow a process, = and actually listen to the person on the other side of the conversation, yo= u=E2=80=99ve pretty much mastered both Sales and Customer Development. Sure= , there are tactics that can make both easier but if you can do Discovery, = you=E2=80=99re 90% of the way there.=20 Did I just trick you into reading about sales tactics? You bet. Do I feel b= ad about it? Not even a little bit :) Happy selling. You are great at it even if you don=E2=80=99t want to admit = it.=20 Collin=20 =E2=80=94=E2=80=94=E2=80=94 You are reading a plain text version of this post. For the best experience,= copy and paste this link in your browser to view the post online: https://predictablerevenue-newsletter.beehiiv.com/p/customer-development-sa= les --043e8f657b059974d614072f544b821c64b2901b038b4ec19e084be82d41 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Mime-Version: 1.0 <= meta name=3D"supported-color-schemes" content=3D"light"/>customer de= velopment and sales customer development and sales <= !--[if mso]>96=
Someone from the community (thanks Kincy) was kind enough to invit= e me to be on their podcast this week and asked a great question, =E2=80=9C= what does a dirty rotten salesperson know about customer development?=E2=80= =9D.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌&#= 160;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= ; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = 204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= 60;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌=  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ R= 04; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ &= #8204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= 0;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌&= #160;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ̴= 4; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ &#= 8204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌&#= 160;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= ; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = 204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= 60;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌=  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ R= 04; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ &= #8204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= 0;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌&= #160;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ̴= 4; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ &#= 8204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌&#= 160;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= ; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = 204; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ = ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌= 60;‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌=  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ R= 04; ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 12, 2024   |=   Read Online

cus= tomer development and sales

3D""

Good morning Andrew,

= Someone from the community (<= span style=3D"color:rgb(44, 62, 80);">thanks Kincy) was kind enough to invite me to be on their p= odcast this week and asked a great question, =E2=80=9Cwhat does a dirty rot= ten salesperson know about customer development?=E2=80=9D. He was much nice= r about it, I=E2=80=99m paraphrasing, but I thought it was a great question= that warranted a more thoughtful reply.

When I first starte= d doing =E2=80=98customer development=E2=80=99 interviews, I took the phras= e a little too literally. I had spent 10 years working with CRMs and consid= ered myself an expert, I wasn=E2=80=99t but I didn=E2=80=99t realize it yet= . This was a Dunning-Kruger moment for me. I had read books from Steve Blan= k, Eric Ries, & Ash Maurya but completely missed the part about customer de= velopment being about the customer. Instead, I weaponized their ideas to ra= tionalize my approach, showing potential customers what I was working on an= d asking for feedback instead of asking questions to find their unmet needs= .

The mistake I made was making the interviews about me (hit me back with an =F0=9F=99=8B=C2=A0emoji = if you=E2=80=99ve done the same). These were my ideas, I thought I was the Steve Jobs of sales, and = future customers should bow down to my brilliance. I=E2=80=99m not and they= didn=E2=80=99t. Interestingly, I had a valuable and correct insight about = the CRM market in 2012, that SaaS CRM was no longer a personal productivity= tool for salespeople. In spite of this, I managed to work myself into a su= perposition of being both wrong and right.

On reflecting, it= =E2=80=99s embarrassing because I was a good sales = rep at that point and a good rep should know to start a conversation with s= trong discovery. Discovery, in sales, is the process of understanding the e= nvironment the prospect is operating in, the progress they are looking to m= ake, and the impact the progress will have on their organization. The golde= n rule is to share as little with the prospect until you=E2=80=99ve complet= ed most of your Discovery. This isn=E2=80=99t some dirty sales jedi trick (= most of those don=E2=80=99= t work anyway). It=E2=80= =99s to prevent reps from dumping unnecessary context on a prospect and was= ting everyone=E2=80=99s time. Think of a sales rep like a DJ, they could pl= ay from a near unlimited selection of songs but a good DJ will know how to find that perfect song to get everyone dancing. Goo= d Discovery is about understanding which songs your prospect wants to hear.=

Discovery conversations usually follows a flow of Context, = Progress, Impact. Once you understand all three, you summarize what you=E2= =80=99ve heard and ask the prospect if you missed anything. When you unders= tand them and they=E2=80=99ve confirmed you haven=E2=80=99t missed anything= , you=E2=80=99ve reached the point of mutual understanding. Now you=E2=80= =99ve earned the right to make a recommendation. If the prospect likes your= recommendation, they=E2=80=99ll run Discovery on you to understand the Con= text, Progress, and Impact of your solution.

Hit me back = with =E2=80=9Cgraphics!=E2=80=9D if some truly terrible illustrations of my= Discovery / Sales process would help you understand it better. They=E2=80= =99re helpful but super ugly.

I knew all of this going i= nto my interviews but I missed it because I was too excited about my own id= eas. The moment that woke me up was when a mentor told me, =E2=80=9CI can= =E2=80=99t wait until you=E2=80=99re working on something that has a chance= of being successful.=E2=80=9D It sounds mean but it was the exact wake up = call that I needed to realize that the customer development process wasn=E2= =80=99t about validating my own ideas, it was about finding unmet needs. It= helped me realize that good Customer Development was just the Discovery ph= ase of the sales process. This insight changed the game for me.

=

I moved from a process that started with showing people what I was work= ing on to one where I told them very little until I had reached the point o= f mutual understanding. One difference from the sales process, instead of m= aking recommendations, I switched to asking my magic wand question & calibr= ation questions.

Back to Kincy=E2=80=99s question, what does= a dirty salesperson know about Customer Development? Quite a bit actually.= Because, Discovery is Discovery. Once you=E2=80=99ve learned how to ask go= od questions, follow a process, and actually listen to the person on the ot= her side of the conversation, you=E2=80=99ve pretty much mastered both Sale= s and Customer Development. Sure, there are tactics that can make both easi= er but if you can do Discovery, you=E2=80=99re 90% of the way there.

Did I just trick you into reading about sales tactics? You bet. Do= I feel bad about it? Not even a little bit :)

Happy selling.= You are great at it even if you don=E2=80=99t want to admit it.

Collin

3D"y=3D"in"
 

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