Creating Opportunities by Building Trust First Client Relationships

Well, here we are with none other than Anthony Iannarino. He has written seven books on selling and he is a prolific author, a great speaker. He's the author of the sales blog. It is a weekly blog that I read religiously and I love the stories. I remembered on Father's Day you had this wonderful insight about what a big difference a good father can make to the children and to the future. And you grew up in a neighborhood where a lot of kids ran around very wild because they had no father. They had adult supervision. And you were the father of beautiful twins that are. Yes, 21 now 25. 25.

One's married now. The other one's got a good boyfriend. I like him. So that's good.

And fun fact, Anthony's brother, his name is Jake, he's a brilliant comedian.

I'm, I'm, I'm his opening act now. I'm allowed to do 12 minutes.

That's amazing.

It's fun.

I love it.

You should do it, G. You should try it. It's. It's fun.

I, I have an opening script and yeah, I'm working on it and I, I want to go in your footsteps and go to a company.

I think you'd do great. I think you would do great.

100. Maybe Joe needs to coach me. Well, we, we started as a stand up comic, so I can coach you on that.

That's great.

Okay, well, let's get serious because the topic today is trust. Trust first client relationships. How do you build them? And I remember there was a Harvard Business School professor who has written a book on trust. And the sentence I walked away with in this book and his presentation was the ability to put yourself in a position of vulnerability. So with that, I turn it over to Anthony.

Okay. Now I've got a bunch of things that I want to say and I'm. I know you've been talking about revenue for two days now, right?

Yep.

So I'm going to give you another look at revenue and we'll talk about trust as we do this. Okay. So the first thing is we have to align with the outcomes that matter to our clients. So that is the most important thing to do. So when you deliver what your clients truly need, you will get the revenue. So that's the most important thing for us to talk about starting off on this thing. So. Okay, now I'm going to go through pretty fast here. Gerhard will come back in and talk about this. These things. So let me go to the next piece. Revenue emerges when we co build with value with our Clients, not for them. So that is the thing that we have to do. We are co building value with our clients. If you're not having that conversation where they're collaborating with us, then I would say revenue might not be what it could have been. Okay.

Start with strategic outcomes, not your solution. So in a long time ago, the first era that I was in sales, the conversation was, why us? And we would talk about our company, we would talk about our clients, we talk about our solutions. And that doesn't work anymore. Nobody cares about your solution. Everybody's got a good solution. So we, we should frame every conversation around the client's ideal future state. Products don't sell, outcomes do. So if you start the conversation with the outcome that the client wants, you're going to be in a very good space because they now know that you understand what they want and how they're going to need to do this. That's where we are right now. So I'm at number three, I'm going to number four. Alignment lives in shared risk and shared reward. Clients trust those who have skin in the game. And if you don't have skin in the game, then it's probably not going to be something that will build trust with your clients.

And gee, you can interrupt me if you want to, but I'll keep going until you stop.

Clients don't want to buy software. I'm in staffing. People don't want to buy staffing and they don't want to buy systems. What they want is lower churn, faster growth, higher margins. And you have to speak that language if you want them to give you the revenue that you need. Okay, so if you're still with me here, we got a ways to go and I'm going to keep moving through this and if you have questions or anything, maybe you can put them up in the chat, maybe we'll answer some questions at the end of this.

Control kills creativity. Collaboration builds buy in and buy in builds revenue. So our job is to have a collaborative conversation with the client so that we can help them with the things that they need to do.

Doctors who treat symptoms without a full diagnosis get sued. Sellers who skip deep discovery discovery lose deals. And they lose deals because they didn't understand what the client really wanted. So the more time you can give them in discovery, the better you'll do. And I will say something about this. I know everybody has this idea that you should be velocity as fast as you can go. Not as fast as you can go, as fast as the client can go. Because if in front of the client, then they're behind you. And that's not going to be a good way to create trust. And that will cause you to not get the revenue that you can. And I know this because I've done some of these things.

The best proposal is a mirror.

A powerful proposal reflects the client's priorities better than they can articulate them themselves. And if you've not ever had that experience, it's really, really powerful. When you can tell them more about what they need to do and the problems that they have and how they can solve them. That puts you in a very, very good place.

Don't push the deal. Don't push. Let it close. When conditions are right, your clients will move fast. Your job is to create the conditions, not apply pressure. And I'm going to stop for a minute in case G wants to. Anything. Do you want to say anything in here?

Yeah, yeah. I'm taking notes as you talk and.

I want to backtrack to one thing which is you talk about the co creative conversation. And I remember interviewing Dr. Norman Vincent Peale who has written the Power of Positive Thinking and he says salesmanship is walking the road of agreement together with the client. And when you walk too fast, you lose the client. If you're not fast enough to catch up with the client, the client is going to lose you. So I like the idea of being in sync with the client and that requires another skill which is being in the moment and not get sidetracked by distracting thoughts or self defeating thoughts or negative comments. Focus on the now. What's happening?

Last June my staffing company asked me. It's family business. They asked me to come in to work on a big deal.

I sat down with 12 senior leaders. I have no idea how much that cost them. I mean they were there. They kept me for two and a half hours there. And they did most of the talking and I did most of the listening. And then when I had something to say, I said it. And they started talking again. At the end of that meeting I thought, wow, that's a long meeting and a lot of its money being spent on this meeting. At the end they said, we can't have you come back next week, but could you come back two weeks because we need another two and a half hours with you. And I'm like, that's a lot of time, right? It's a lot of time for them. I was happy to give them that. We had two virtual 30 minutes and they gave me a contract for $7.5 million for three years, not too bad. So if you think you want to go fast and you want the velocity, just put that to the side. Give them all the time that they need. The more time you give them. You should all know right now that indecision is the biggest problem that we have right now. People don't want to make a decision because they don't want to get it wrong. So we have to do the work to help them do that. That was a big deal for my family's business. So you're looking at maybe $21 million over three years. That's a lot of revenue. And if they asked me for another two and a half hours, I would have given it to them too. Right. This is a big deal. So the more that you can give them the time that they need so that they can be certain and that they have the clarity and the confidence that you're going to be able to do this, I would say slow down. Give them all the time that they need. The more you can do that, the more your revenue is going to look great.

A quick question from the audience, Anthony. Do you find that this works the same in the commercial property insurance industry? They focus on small business owners.

I think no matter what you do, I think your responsibility is to make sure that they have the conversation that they need to be able to make a decision. I'm, I'm right now working on a book about decision making and with. I, I have a whole bunch of strategies with a whole bunch of tactics. You'll get to see it at some point in the time, so I'll share that when we get there. Speed doesn't come from talking faster. It, it comes from listening. And the more that you can listen and they understand that you understand them, that's where your revenue is really going to come from. Tie your solution to revenue retention, cost reduction or time to value. That's how you get executive sport support. That's what they want. They want to know that you're going to be able to do these things after you make these promises that this is what's going to happen.

Is there anything else that. No mother questions. Good.

Well, I think that the, the, the focus here is on understanding.

Mary Kay once said that women don't want to be persuaded, they want to be understood. And the same is true in B2B settings. Buyers don't want to be persuaded by your brilliant pitch and your brilliant information. They want the feeling that you understand their challenges, their problems, and help them find the best solution. That takes away the burden and the difficulties that they're experiencing right now by focusing exactly on what you said earlier, on the metrics that matter to the buyer.

Yeah, that's revenue retention, cost reduction or time to value. And that, that one turns out to be a big one. Now, right now they want it to get done sooner than later. When they do make a decision.

Value isn't in features and benefits. Until the client uses what you sell to get a result, it has no value. Sell what it will do, not what it is. And this is the thing that I have been talking about for a long time. When I started to realize nobody wanted to buy staffing. What they wanted was the outcome of the staffing. And that meant lower labor member prices and things like that and the ability to take people when they've been in the tent for 480 hours. They wanted those things. They don't really want staffing. So they did this because it was a way to get better numbers.

Client transformation is your committed, your competitive moat. Anyone can copy a product, no one can copy a transformation story. So I have my best transformation story. I had a very large client a couple years ago and I thought I was going to be with them for maybe a couple, maybe a couple months. At the end of two years of working with them, I got a letter from my champion and he said, I'm afraid to say this because they're going to send me another invoice. He said, I hate to say this to you, but I have to. You helped us get an extra $1 billion. One billion. That's what that was. From the training and the transformation that we did with them that helped them get a billion. I did not get another invoice though, unfortunately. I would like 10, 10%. That would do it. Right? Right. It's a very well known company too.

Every dollar you don't lose is more profitable than the one you win. Your best sales strategy deliver real outcomes and it's not about a solution. They have to get what they expected to get with these outcomes. So I decided at one time I'm only just going to start to become the conversation with the strategic outcome. So if you're in, if you're listening to this, if you sell the same thing every day and your buyer buys it every five years or seven years, you have so much knowledge that they don't know that if you would share it with them, they would think that you are probably the best salesperson that they've seen. That's how this works. You don't want to be a copycat anyway. You have your own transformation stories. Those help your clients understand how you do these things.

Stop hurting clients through rigid steps. Guide them toward clarity, step by step. And I'm going to keep pounding on this. Like, I see so many people are trying to go fast. Try to slow down, just slow down. Give people the time that they need. And if you don't know this, there's three eras that I've been in. Gerhardt's probably got a couple before that, but the first one for me was ys. And I had a guy that just asked me, did it work. It worked great in the 80s, right? Why us? Worked great. And then we got to the 90s and we got to solution selling, and it was all about the solution, right? And now we're in decision making. So you have to slow down. You have to help them with the decision making. That's what they're looking for help with. So if you want to pitch them, I will tell you at the very end of the conversation, you can give them a pitch. But if you start saying anything, I watched a guy do this a couple days ago. He just wants to talk about why us. And nobody cares about that. So you have to just put that away. And just like at the end of the conversation, you can give him a pitch and say, this is why I think this is going to be good for you. Let me tell you the resources we're going to bring to this and how we're going to get you fast results. That's what people are looking for.

But I think there's an underlying cause for the challenge that people are experiencing with making a decision.

Why do you think that is?

Nobody wants to get this wrong. And I will just tell you, there's a couple of things that I think when I started selling, I would walk in and I would sit down with the CEO and I would have a contract, we'd have a conversation, they'd sign it, and I would have a deal. Now, I can tell you, in 2000, I remember the exact company, Marzetti. I walked into their conference, 14 people sitting there, and I'm like, I came by myself. And so what I did is I said, I've got you surrounded. And they laughed. And then I realized that there was only three people talking and asking questions. And I said, could I come and meet you in your facility so I can better understand how you guys do this stuff? And they said, that would be great. That company is still with my family's business, and it does $2 million every single year for. Let's say 20 years, maybe longer than that. That's why I'm telling you to slow down.

So what, what you're saying is that in response to my question, what makes difficult decision making more difficult is 14.

People trying to make a decision together.

So number one, there are more people involved in making the decision. And, and as a salesperson, the three that were talking were probably not representative of what the other 11 didn't say.

That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. It was a, that was my first time doing something like that. But now it's just everywhere. I mean, people. And people walk into the conversations, they get up and walk out and they come back in and they. The second time I had that meeting with them, some people were there, other people weren't there, and it's just hard to. It's like you're headed herding cats, right? It's, you're in and out, and then it's easier for the people that leave. They, they have no skin in the game, but they can also say, no, I don't want to say yes to that. So this is where we are. I'm just giving you what's true right now.

The sales process is a journey.

You got to guide them toward clarity. You have to get them certain and you have to get them confident. If they don't have that, I think the revenue is not going to be there.

I don't really believe that there are objections anymore. I, I can't tell you the last time I heard an objection, but what I've heard is a lot of concerns. We're concerned about this, we're concerned about this other thing. So you have to make sure that they point to misalignment and you use this to realign and not to argue. And I watched a whole bunch of people arguing in one of my last big deals.

I think it's concerns. I've not had anybody say, no, we're not going to do this. They would say, we have this concern. You have to be able to resolve those concerns if you want to get the revenue.

So why do you think that is that the landscape changed? Because in the past, like in the 80s and 90s, we created a sales script book that featured 31 of the most important and most difficult customer objections. And we created about 320 responses. And so the times have changed, the conversation changed, and, and it'll change again.

It will change again.

So what you're saying is that the training that you do today.

Has a timestamp on it and Sales enablement managers and revenue enablement managers need to be aware that what they're teaching today can be obsolete three months from now.

That's right. It can be at any time.

Clients don't want to pitch, they want to guide.

The way that I talk about it is being one up, which means I have the experience and I have the authority because I've been in the industry for so long that that's what they want. They're looking for a guide. They're looking for somebody that can be a Sherpa and help them navigate this decision making.

Your real sale begins after the signature. Most reps disappear after the deal. I hate that when they do that, they sell and then they're gone. They got their money. If you stay in, ensure results and earn referrals, renewals and revenue are just part of it. So that's it. So you have to think through this, this kind of way. I know you get a lot of things. You've probably been here for a long time, maybe two days, and you learned all these things. I'm giving you my view of this because I think the relationship with our clients is the most important thing. And if you want to have real revenue, then you've got to have those relationships. I saw somebody one time wrote that relation selling is dead. It will never be dead as long as we're human. That's not going to happen.

It's like cold calls.

Yeah.

By the way, Bryn Tillman is one of audience members she presented yesterday, but she made a very wise comment. Detach yourself from what the prospect is worth to you and attach to what you are replacing. What you are worth to the prospect.

That's exactly right. Brenda is a smart girl.

She's also a grandmother.

A grandmother?

Yes.

No, she's too young. She's only 22. I know that. In the. In a sea of noise, the calm, clear voice wins. Bring simplicity and bring strategy. That's what they're looking for. That's what your clients are looking for. And I know that's what mine's looking for.

Revenue is the evidence of relevance. If you're not growing, you're not aligned. Automate. Audit your message, your market and your method. If you have what I said, those. Those three eras. If it's why us or our solution, that is not going to work nearly as well as something else.

Do fewer things drive deeper impact. Complexity dilutes value. Simplify. Focus on what moves the client's scoreboard. And if you don't know that, I mean, I do this with my Clients, I want to know what their revenue growth was so I can have something to stand on.

Learn the client's internal language. And I've had people say, we don't like the word client consultative. I don't know why they don't like that. It's a good word. But they said, we don't like. We don't like that word. Take it out. So that's what I had to do. I can't use those words for them because they don't like it. Use their terms, and that's how you earn trust. And if you start to take their language, then you're an insider.

I think one of the challenges in different industries is that.

There is a human tendency to create acronyms. I don't know why.

Yeah.

But.

As a salesperson, if you do not understand an acronym that the client is using, ask immediately. Can you help me understand this acronym? Because it reminds me of similar ones, but I don't know if I'm reading this right.

I had that experience one time with the Limited. They had a whole bunch of words that I didn't know. And I walked into the senior leader and I said, I kind of understand what you're saying, but could you educate me on how you guys are thinking about this? And, and he said, would you like to see our, our Excel? And I said, yeah. Showed me all of the, the metrics. It was very, very helpful for me. I learned a lot. And then I started asking everybody to tell me how about their business, how it works. Exactly. Very good way to get good trust.

That brings me to the other insight, which is that a good salesperson is not just a good teacher leading the client to new knowledge, but also you have to be a good student.

And learning about the customer's business, about the customer's challenges, and about the customer as a person.

I think that's exactly right. Stop talking about your offer. Start showcasing. Showcasing your impact. And that's a better way to start. I have one more. The more you lead with clarity, confidence and competence, the less you need to cons to convince anybody to do anything. That's all I have here for you. And we have three minutes left. This is perfect timing, isn't it?

And I, I want to thank Henry Clickel for just saying, great conversation. And Henry is working on a book right now on hiring and recruiting salespeople. It should be on Amazon.com awesome. Yeah.

Great comments. Very positive feedback. I, as Joanne just said, always communicate with the client's comfort level.

Their language, their prefer, preferred way of communicating. For example phone, email, text, etc. That is an important point that is so confusing today because some people don't like text. They say don't text me. Where some people just ignore all emails and others.

And, and I think this is the biggest thing the, the phone.

We said earlier. Cold calling is never dead. And I feel that cold calling is probably the most underrated, underused skill right now in this economy because you should never pre charge when you look at a cold call list the ability of a customer to either buy or to refer you to somebody that is willing to buy.

That's right. Cold calling is still the best way for you to get a meeting and an email. If I send you an email today, tomorrow morning it'll be 750 emails down, will not get seen at all. It's. You're better off that. The other thing I want to say, if I could say one last thing. We should try to do everything we can to walk into the client facility and, and go and sit them, sit with them. That would be the very best thing that you can do. If you do that, revenue will come very fast. It.