Sales Skills Foundations for Entrepreneurs and Startup Founders

A Journeying365 Chapter

By: Jean-Luc Scherer

I N T R O D U C T I O N S A L E S B A S I C S

WHAT IS SALES?

S A L E S P R O C E S S S A L E S F U N N E L

WHO ARE YOU SELLING TOO?

C O N S U M E R

E N T E R P R I S E

I N V E S T O R

B 2 B

B 2 B 2 C

CHALLENGE (1): CLEAR VALUE PROP.

Innovator

Stakeholder

Attributes

Segments

Rationale

Impact = Values – Costs

What to sell

To whom Why they should buy it

Reasons to believe

Anyone in your Value chain – Internal or external

The Biggest challenge for sales people is to clearly understand the buying cycle of their prospective clients and connecting with them at the right time.

CHALLENGE (2): TIMING & CONTEXT

CHALLENGE (3): CUSTOMER ALIGNMENT

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

UNDERSTANDING THE BUYING CYCLE

U N D E R S TA N D I N G C U S T O M E R

WHAT IS SPIN? B2B SALES TECHNIQUE …FOR COMPLEX SALES

HOW TO USE IT

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

ROLE PLAYING •  Startup

–  Try to create traction with your product / solution

–  Try to put yourself in the client’s shoes. Understand as much as you can about the prospective client, the context.

–  Try to create of positive outcome. Anything that gets you closer to the selling.

•  Debrief

–  What did you learn about the customer?

–  Was the outcome positive or negative? Why?

•  Potential client

–  Randomly select where you are in the buying cycle

–  For an enterprise decide what role you have in the organization. Type of decision maker.

–  For a consumer product decide what matters the most to you for the type of product the startup is trying to promote.

•  Debrief

–  How did you perceive the seller?

•  Did he understand your needs? Would you buy from him? What was good and bad?

D I G I TA L M A R K ET I N G

THE 4 P’S OF MARKETING

DIGITAL MARKETING ECO-SYSTEM

SALES & MARKETING FUNNEL

SALES FUNNEL FINANCIAL PLANNER WANTING TO ATTRACT MILLENIALS

CREATE A SALES & MARKETING FUNNEL •  Startup

–  Define a sales funnel for your startup

–  Explain what activities and tools you will use to create awareness and interest

–  What mechanisms you will use to convert users to customers

•  Debrief

–  Feedback from the remaining teams.

–  What would you do differently?

•  Startup

–  For this exercise, if you have already a plan, we will swap the marketing persons between startups

CREATING A SALES VORTEX

THANK YOU