⚡️ Today’s level up ⚡️

Today’s edition unpacks a 1:1 coaching session with one of my Diamond Program members, Bobby, where we discuss how productizing his sales process gives him the clarity and confidence to operate his account list like it’s his own startup. When doing so, this gives him the power to work in a way that is impactful, freeing, and repeatable.Let’s go!Read time: <5 minutesIf you missed last week, read it here.

Are you selling or designing a good buying experience?

“The key to success in sales is to stop selling and start helping customers buy. It’s about making it easier for them to choose you over the competition.” - Matthew Dixon

I’ve conducted over 500 one-on-one coaching sessions over the past two and a half years.The thing I’ve repeated the most across all of them is “Stop selling, and instead, focus on designing a better buying experience.”In today’s edition, we’re going to break down how to masterfully do this using one of my Diamond Program member’s recent coaching sessions with me.Let’s dive in.

Breakdown of Bobby’s strategy session

“Customers don’t want to be sold to; they want to be guided. It’s our job as sales professionals to remove obstacles and make it easier for them to buy.” - Matthew Dixon

Bobby is an experienced seller who’s recently been promoted from Enterprise to the Strategic Accounts team where he will have bigger accounts to pursue and more resources to utilize.During a productive session last week, we went through a powerful exercise that I encourage you to try for yourself. Before we get to that, here were some questions I asked Bobby as he prepares to join the Strat Account team:- What industries or verticals do you feel passionate about?- How would you grade the effectiveness of the way you want your business to run on a daily basis?- In a perfect world, what would your calendar look like if you could design it from scratch?- When you fast forward to a year from now, what’s being said about you and what are the things you’re most proud of?These questions are examples of zooming out (so you can develop an idea of where you want to go) before zooming in (so you can focus on the right next steps).It’s a part of a framework I’ll be talking about a lot about over future editions as I rebrand this newsletter and offer new products and services. It’s called PLAY, which is purposeful to serve as a clear and distinct counter-narrative to WORK.You can see how I define PLAY below. But what about WORK? Let’s think about it like this:- Wrestles with the small stuff- Overwhelmed by chaos- Reacts as a victim- Knocked out by burnout

For the purpose of this edition, asking yourself these questions is a prime example of the first pillar: Ponder. You want to think deeply about the bigger picture when it comes to your time as a revenue generator in tech so that you can use it as a vehicle to attain something more valuable than earning President’s Club, closing mega deals, topping the leaderboards, receiving awards, and earning large commission checks (”the status game”) - having a free calendar to fill it up with what you wish and pursue your ambitions on your terms (”the infinite game”).It’s critical to remember this: To become an impactful revenue generator, you need to first become an effective value creator. That’s being a Purposeful Performer.Here’s how to get started.

Steps to productize your own sales process

“Challenge the status quo not by pushing a product, but by helping your customers think differently about their own needs and goals.” - Matthew Dixon

STEP 1: Think of yourself as an independent consultant or a startupA helpful mental reframe is to stop thinking about yourself as an employee for your company, and instead think of yourself as an independent consultant or even a startup with your company acting as your “VC.”This helps you to step away from the comfortable confines of having a base salary, benefits, and resources at your disposal and encourages you to explore what it would feel like if you had to provide for yourself or your family completely on your own.This forces you to take complete ownership of your results.You want your business or startup to be successful, so how are you going to ensure that happens?STEP 2: Develop your narrativeNext, to push the boundaries on codifying what your business or startup is all about, imagine a top publication like Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, or Harvard Business Review approaches you to write a piece about what exactly it is you do.- What’s your headline?- What’s the problem you encounter all the time?- What makes you different than anyone else in the world?- Who should pay attention and is benefitting from what you offer?- How exactly can you help them?- Why should they address this right now?Tips:1. Do this exercise when you are undistracted and can’t be disturbed.2. Write first. Edit later. Don’t do both at the same time.3. Revisit this often (monthly or quarterly), as it can act as your operating manual for running your business. It will be helpful to tweak it and adapt it as you gain new insights and knowledge.If you click on my LinkedIn page, go to my Articles, and scroll to my first one and work backward, you could see the evolution of me doing this exact thing throughout my career - from Datum (2014), to Revel Systems (2015), to LivePerson (2018), bridging to my business now (2021). When I didn’t know what I was doing, I wrote it out first - a key principle of Purposeful Performance.STEP 3: Define and quantify the 3 - 5 key steps of the buying processOnce you’ve written out why your business exists, what you stand for, and how you can help big businesses, it’s time to break them down into three, and no more than 5, distinct steps you’d recommend your prospect or client to undertake to transform their business.The key is to assign a value to each step and treat them as their own product (even if your current employer doesn’t have a specific product for that step).Let’s deconstruct Bobby’s steps to give you an example. Bobby works for a SaaS provider that improves CX (Customer Experience) through technology implemented inside contact centers. I asked him if he was Bobby Consulting, LLC what are the three major milestones he’d help his prospects embark on and how much would they pay?Here’s what we came up with:

It’s important to point out that if Bobby was an independent consultant, he could command these prices for himself. After all, McKinsey charges $400K for a “powerpoint presentation.” There is a ton of value and ROI that could be garnered from each one of these steps (or “products”) because they would show the business how to fundamentally operate better and that would have a material impact on their customer experience, employee experience, and bottom line.Now as a Strategic AE, he doesn’t necessarily need to charge for each step, but he now can set himself up logically for a $1.5M+ opportunity…in every opportunity he pursues. The ACV for deals at his company is nowhere near that range (it’s in the 6-figures), but here Bobby has a clear, defensible, and logical plan to make 7-figure opportunities his baseline, not a one-off dream.That’s the key takeaway here.By systematically productizing your sales process, you enhance the buying experience for your prospects and clients. You make it easy for them to understand where to start, what to expect, and where to go. That journey shouldn’t be cheap. There is value you’re delivering along the way, even if payment doesn’t come until the order form is created after Step 3.In addition, it helps you to start from a place of strength and confidence. Instead of wasting months going through a stale discovery-based process to unearth the pain, you already have an understanding of the pain out of the gates. You’re just quantifying the pain as you deepen the engagement and gather their data.

Helpful Resources:

“The best way to differentiate yourself isn’t with more features or lower prices, but by being a partner in the decision-making process, not just a provider of information.” - Matthew Dixon

Need some “training wheels” to bring the steps above to life? Try these:→ Think of yourself like a startup: To Reach New Heights In Your Sales Career, Treat Yourself Like a Brand→ Get warmed up with writing: The Personal Narrative Writing Framework→ Deconstruct your sales process into an elevated buying experience: Here’s Bobby’s and here’s the one I usedWhat can you create from these? Feel free to share them with me and I’ll provide feedback.That’s a wrap! See you next week.

Here’s how I can help you right now (big changes coming- get these while you can):

1 | Unlock the 7 Figure Seller OSLearn how to use design and systems thinking to become a 7 figure seller. There are 3 options to allow you to customize your learning journey.2 | Download The 7 Figure Open LetterGet the creative strategic selling strategy that landed a $5.9M deal with a top 4 major global airline. Bonus inside!3 | Book a 1:1 coaching session right nowYou can book a 60-minute coaching session with me (although the Pro above option provides access to 1:1 coaching with me at a 70% discount).